Hol Horse is a Bad Guy- But He's not a BAD Guy
by Varmint
Summary: Hol Horse was not a good guy. He was a bad person. He knew this. He didn't fight it. It was easier to just go with the flow on this. But just because he was a bad person, it didn't mean he was a monster. OR! The Stardust Crusaders are all hit by Set, de-aged, and Hol Horse doesn't have the heart to kill them. So he kidnaps them and does what he does best- run away.
1. Chapter 1

This story is very much humorous and not to be taken too seriously.

Please enjoy~

..~..~..

"A new prophecy, yes!"

Oingo looked over at his brother from his place on the hospital bed. He was still recovering from the explosion and beating that had almost ended his life and needed to stay in the hospital for quite some time.

Boingo was eager enough to show him the new happenings that he jumped out of his chair and made his way to his side. Then he showed off the colorful images as he interpreted them.

By the time he had finished, the enthusiasm he had felt in the beginning was clearly gone. And Oingo could not blame him.

They remained frozen for some time, a sudden chill passing through them at the insinuation of the images within the book.

"That... that easily?" Oingo gasped, eyes wide as he stared at the image of a pile of ash on the ground of what he knew was Lord Dio's mansion. "They defeated him... with _five_ bullets?"

If Oingo was surprised, Boingo was _speechless_. He was making noise from within his throat, as if he wanted to speak... but no words would come out.

The eldest of the brothers could only stare at the comic before him, his heart caught in terror's icy grip.

_"And Hol Horse shot five times into the air- bang! bang! bang! bang! bang!- sending the bullets up, up, up! But what comes up, must come down- directly into the windows within Lord Dio's library- oh no! Fives bullets destroyed five different windows and sunlight burst in, setting an unexpected Lord Dio on fire! Whoosh- oh no! Lord Dio crumped into a pile of ashes- chan chan!"_

Oingo knew that his brother's stand didn't work erratically or chaotically. If something this spontaneous had been detailed for them, it meant that this was going to be the future. And if neither of them wanted to risk angering fate, they would have to allow this scene to play out before them.

"H-H-Ho-Hol Horse... h-h-he killed L-Lo-Lord D-Dio…" Boingo finally managed to gasp out, his skin as pale as a ghost as he continued to stare at the prophecy.

Oingo sighed and frowned deeply. "And he doesn't even know it."

* * *

Hol Horse was not a good guy. He didn't care about breaking hearts and he didn't mind the proverbial blood staining his hands. He was a killer, a cowboy casanova, and a low down degenerate. He was no hero- but that was okay, because he had never claimed to be one. He didn't necessarily let the women of the world know how much of a player he was, but he certainly did not make them think he was the best thing to stroll into their lives.

He was a bad person. He knew this. He didn't fight it. It was easier to just go with the flow on this.

But just because he was a bad person, it didn't mean he was a monster.

"L-Lord Dio?" he blinked at his boss, sweat beginning to collect on his brow. "They're-"

"Children. I am aware, Hol Horse." the man's deep voice was as cold and unfeeling as stone. "I am sure that even with your past failures, you can complete the simple task of putting a bullet between the eyes of these five brats."

When he had agreed to take on the job with Mariah and Alessi, he had thought that he would finally be rid of the curse that had been the Joestars and their friends in his life. He had thought that they would finally capture them, bring them to Lord Dio, and be done with them. If not that, then he had honestly believed they would have died before they could be brought back to their vampire boss.

He had never expected to be asked to kill them now, though. Not now that none of them was older than ten years old. Not now that they had forgotten the majority of the things they had done in their adult lives to piss off Lord Dio so much.

Three of the five kids standing in front of him were shivering. Two of those were sniffling with tears in their eyes- Kakyoin and Polnareff. They were the youngest, or at least that was what Hol Horse believed because of how _small_ they were. No older than four years old, if he had to guess... But he was bad at guessing ages for children- he'd never been a big fan of their kind, after all.

Even though they had no memories of who the people around them were anymore, the pink and sliver haired boys clung to each other as if they were one another's lifeline.

Hol Horse may have been a bad person, but he wasn't a monster. So seeing these two so absolutely terrified... it struck a chord within him... a _bitter and guilty one_.

"Take care of them outside, in the back. Like the dogs they are." Dio waved his hand as he turned his back onto the children, beginning to step away from them.

"Why do you want to kills us? We're just kids, you jerk!" Joseph's voice was, unsurprisingly, incredibly high pitched and young. And, unsurprisingly yet again, he seemed to have decided to try and protect the kids with him from the scary, shirtless, blonde monster that now had his back turned to them. "We haven't done anything to you!"

Polnareff's crying became louder, all the while Kakyoin tried to make his own much more muffled. The slightly older bodies of Jotaro and Avdol were in front of them. Joseph in front of those two. Even though they didn't remember each other, the group was still trying to protect the weakest and youngest of them.

He broke out into a cold sweat- felt the uncomfortable moistness begin to build up within his clothes and on his face. Lord Dio had asked him to do one thing. But these were _children_... and they were _frightened_.

Once more, a chord was struck within Hol Horse's bad heart.

He was a bad man.

But he couldn't fathom murdering _five innocent children _in cold blood.

Logic would say that, even though these five were innocent, they were dangerous. Not only were they dangerous, but their adult selves had caused a lot of pain and complications in Hol Horse's life- professionally and personally. They were monkey wrenches in Dio's plans of (Hol Horse supposed) world domination. All logic told him that, now that they were weak and vulnerable, it was the perfect time to get rid of them.

But Hol Horse had never been the kind of person to listen to logic when his heart was crooning at him.

"_Now_, Hol Horse."

Time seemed to suspend as he came to a decision.

Suddenly, instead of feeling overwhelming heat surrounding him, he only felt a cool breeze- coming to a decision had helped calm his speeding heart.

"Kids. Y'heard the man. Move on out."

"No! We're not going!"

Avdol ran from behind Joseph, quickly scurrying to stand in between Hol Horse and the rest of the group. Hol Horse frowned down at him; even as his heart melted at how truly refreshing it was to see this much loyalty within one group.

He'd never been able to trust someone completely. He'd never known the kind of confidence that came from knowing he could rely on someone else wholeheartedly. He'd only ever been able to believe in himself, his skills, and his talent for finding talent.

Summoning Emperor into his hand, Hol Horse glared down at Avdol with as much disinterest as he could muster up. He couldn't have his act crack; not in front of Lord Dio. But he needed to get these kids outside before he could reassure them that he would _not_ be killing them.

"Head on out now."

The young boy's eyes narrowed, sweat began to fall down the side of his head, and a heavy frown took over his lips. But Hol Horse was able to read his dark eyes: _defeat_.

A kid so young shouldn't look so utterly broken...

Joseph tried to kick up another fuss. But the deafening sound of Emperor's trigger being pulled back cut off his cries.

The five children walked in front of him, out of the door they had come in through only a few minutes ago, and Hol Horse kept his stand channeled within his hand. He needed to keep them compliant, if only for a few more minutes.

Dio's cold laughter followed them all the way out.

They walked into Cairo's blistering sun without saying another word. The kids dragged their feet and Hol Horse couldn't blame them. They were only children. They only had memories of their lives until this age. Right now, there was no way for them to understand anything that was happening around them. Alessi's stand had made that much clear.

Once they had walked quite a way's away from Dio's domain, Hol Horse aimed his gun up into the air.

He couldn't run the risk of having Dio believe, even for a fraction of a second, that he hadn't gotten rid of these five. So he would shoot into the air, letting the sound of gunshots ring out and make the vampire believe, if only for a few minutes, that Hol Horse had complete his task.

Clearing his throat, he made sure the kids were all glaring at him- wow, Avdol had quite the death glare on him, even though he was less than ten years old- before he whispered to them.

"You're all going to live. But do _exactly_ as I say. And _don't_ make a fuss."

Polnareff and Kakyoin's sniffling subdued marginally. Joseph began to look at him in nothing short of absolute confusion. And Jotaro and Avdol… continued to _glare._

"I ain't going to kill you." he whispered so softly that he could barely hear himself, "but that guy's crazy. So... just... _trust_ me."

So he fired five times, straight into the air, and finished off by offering a (hopefully) reassuring smile at the children.

"And now we run."

~..~..~

Hol Horse best villain.

That is all.

Please review and tell me what you thought!


	2. Chapter 2

He'd gotten lucky- he knew. The bank teller was a greasy rat that had accepted a bribe in exchange for all of the money left in his account. The bank was not supposed to have given him so much on such a short notice- he was pretty sure that was actually illegal. But promising a hefty cut from what was going to be given had been enough to make the rat give him what he needed.

So, yeah, he may have done something highly illegal... but at least these five innocent children were now safe... and in his custody... he... who was a man that had no idea what children were even supposed to _eat_.

Hoo boy- what had he done?

"Hey, mister."

Hol Horse blinked at the group of children. They were all still in the same place he had left them when he had skulked into the bank to get his money. Kakyoin, Polnareff and Joseph were all sitting down on one of the long benches poised towards the right side of the entrance of the bank. Avdol and Jotaro, on the other hand, were standing in front of them, as if watching over the youngest members of their little group.

The one to have spoken up was Joseph. He was looking up at him through narrowed eyes, as if he were intent on solving a puzzle standing before him. The rest were looking at him in more confusion than determination.

"Y'all didn't move." he blinked down at Joseph, his own curiosity piqued at this. "Ain't y'all supposed to be kids or something?"

The five children looked at one another, as if discussing his question in silence. Eventually, after a few seconds of blinking at one another, Avdol shrugged softly. "You told us not to move. And... we don't know where we are."

Now _that_ was odd. Out of all of them, Hol Horse would have expected Avdol to be the one to have some idea where they were. Egypt was his home... right?

"Do you know _who_ you are, at least?" he moved away from the entrance of the bank as people started to try and pass by him and towards the children.

Slowly, he walked until he was standing before all five children, looming over them because of their diminutive stature. He continued to look at them, even as he knelt down so he didn't have to tilt his head downwards just to be able to look them in the eyes.

Once again, all five of them shared looks. And Hol Horse stopped himself right before he allowed himself to think that it was adorable how smart they all seemed to be because of their clear distrust of him. These were still his enemies, after all. Even though he had helped them out- and would find a way to get rid of them _safely_-, they were still the Joestars and their friends. They were still dangerous to him.

What was he going to _do_ with them?

"I'm Joseph." the young boy piped up, seemingly taking on the role of the leader of the group. Which, honestly, didn't really surprise Hol Horse all that much. "These are Avdol, Polnareff, Kakyoin, and Jotaro. We... we don't really know what we're doing here. Or how we even _got_ here."

"Or why that big scary guy wanted to kill us." Polnareff mentioned, sniffling only minutely now that his crying had petered out.

"Or why you saved us, Hol Horse."

Beside himself, a chill ran through Hol Horse's spine upon hearing Jotaro's words.

There was something so _cold_ about this kid... If Hol Horse hadn't known any better, he would have thought this kid still had the memories of his older self. But that was impossible. Alessi's stand caused a person's mental age to revert to their physical age- there was no way that Jotaro could _remember who he was_.

He was just being paranoid.

Yeah.

That's all it was.

The Joestar's were so capable that he was allowing his own paranoia to get the best of him again. Especially now that he knew was alone and- holy shit, he was alone and he'd completely gone against a direct order from Lord Dio.

He needed to get out of Egypt. And he needed to bring the kids with him to make sure that no one was able to find them and see that he had not, in fact, completed Lord Dio's last mission. Besides, he knew that it was only a matter of time before the vampire would expect him to return after supposedly murdering the children. He had to take advantage of this time and run as far away from Lord Dio and the rest of his followers as quickly as possible.

He took a moment to think about what he would tell the children.

Honestly, he didn't know how much they each knew about stands at this age. Much less how much they knew about the harsh and violent realities of the world. What would be for the best would be for him to simply... _lie_... right?

Yeah.

But not too much.

That Jotaro's glare... it sent ice down his back, even though he seemed to be around eight years old.

With a serious frown on his face, he decided that the best thing he could do was, hopefully, convince them that he was a good enough guy they could trust so they wouldn't fight him on moving them out of Cairo.

"There's a lot I can't explain right now. We're on a tight timetable." he sighed, closing his eyes.

What was he even trying to do?

He was _way in over his head_.

These five, in their _normal lives_, hated him. If they were to randomly go back to their usual states, he was probably going to get killed by them before he could even explain himself.

And as they were at the moment wasn't much better. Not only were they children, but they were also _very clearly kid versions of the same guys that had killed and ruined the lives of many people that believed Lord Dio was right_.

Wait a minute... Why was he still calling the guy that?

He wasn't his boss anymore. He didn't have to respect the guy anymore. And quite frankly, he didn't feel like he should respect a guy that was willing to murder a bunch of children that didn't even have a memory of ever having done anything to him in their lives.

"All you need to do right now is know that I ain't gonna hurt you." then he looked the kids over, taking note of their incredibly gaudy and easily recognizable outfits, and sighed to himself. "And we have to go shopping."

Joseph's face seemed to twist even further, eyes becoming incredibly focused for a moment. "Why?"

Hol Horse blinked back at the rather odd look on the kid, only to shrug and attempt to seem nonchalant. "The clothes you're wearing don't fit well. Wouldn't y'all feel more comfortable in clothes that actually, y'know... _fit_?"

Once more, all five of the children glanced at one another and seemed to share a silent conversation through just their eyesight. Eventually, though, Joseph turned back to him and nodded, offering a tentative smile. "That _would_ be nice."

Hol Horse didn't know why... but there was a feeling he just couldn't shake about there being something _off_ about Joseph and Jotaro. Joseph seemed to be thinking too much- especially for a person he knew was supposed to be more on the hairbrained part of the spectrum. On the other hand, Jotaro seemed to know _too much_. There was something in his eyes... an intonation to his voice... he didn't know how to explain it, but there was something about those two that made him doubt what they were really thinking.

"Uh, Mr. Horse sir?" Kakyoin's voice was a soft timber, shaky and worried.

Hol Horse blinked at the kid- because nobody had ever called him a mister and a sir in the sentence before and- oh no, it was endearing from the kid.

_These guys had tried to kill him at one point. Hell, he'd thought he had succeeded in killing Avdol!_

Shaking himself back into reality, Hol Horse decided to ignore his thoughts for a moment and paid attention to whatever it was that the pink haired boy wanted to say.

"Are..." he cleared his throat softly, glanced down at the ground, and now that Hol Horse was looking at him, he could see both of the kid's hands holding on tightly to Avdol's right hand. "Are we going to get any food?"

Once more, Hol Horse was harshly reminded of how stupid he had been and what his horrible reality was now.

Children needed food. They needed clothes. They needed shelter.

He couldn't just rough it out with these kids... not if he really wanted to get as far away from L-_Dio_ as possible.

He was in over his head and his wallet was going to be smarting after all of this.

"Yeah." he sighed, slowly standing up before he pulled the brim of his hat lower on his face to cover it up a bit from the analytical stares of the children. "Yeah. We will. Let's get goin'."

* * *

Joseph continued to stare through narrowed eyes at the man supposedly named Hol Horse as he finished paying for their change of clothes.

He couldn't help but stare! He knew it was rude... but... he had a _hunch_.

He couldn't act on that hunch just yet. He would need to bide his time... just to make sure that his theory was correct before he let anyone know what he was thinking.

A tall white man with long blonde hair. Seemingly, he had money to spare and had enough power at his fingertips to stroll into a bank with nothing and leave with _everything_. And, finally, he was a man that _cared_.

Hol Horse may have held them at gunpoint a few hours ago, but it had been to smuggle them away from the evil monster called Dio. Even though he had not explained exactly why he had been taking orders from the guy, Joseph knew that he had helped because he cared. There was a spark in his eyes- a warmth to his words; it was undeniable that this man had helped them because he was a good person!

"Oi, Ji-I mean, Joseph."

The confusion of his name didn't really cause much concern in Joseph. He had only just met all of these different kids a few hours ago. Names were easy to forget in such a short amount of time.

"Hmm?" he did not take his eyes away from the man that called himself Hol Horse as he hummed over at the dark haired Japanese boy- Jotaro, he believed. Who was different from Kakoyin.

Avdol's name was really easy to remember. And he seemed like the kind of kid Joseph could get along with easily; _if_ he didn't try and stop him from his self-assigned mission. He wasn't sure about Kakyoin or Polnareff- they seemed to be big cry babies. And he wasn't a big fan of cry babies or kids that believed adults one hundred percent without questioning anything.

But this Jotaro… was _another_ mystery he needed to unravel. But he would deal with that _after_ he had tested out his hypothesis to see if he was correct.

"Why are you hiding back here?"

Joseph frowned over at the boy for a moment, but quickly turned back to continue watching the man supposedly called Hol Horse. That wasn't a name! There was no way this guy's name was actually that. It was an alias, he was sure.

The clothes the man had bought were simple, but comfortable. With loose jeans and t-shirts, they all looked like normal kids now, rather than wearing the rather bright clothes they had been wearing a few hours ago. Joseph couldn't help but feel somewhat naked in such simple clothes, but he could admit that they were at least comfortable. And the purple jacket over his white shirt added a small pop of color to an otherwise dreary outfit.

Now the adult had a couple of different bags held within his left hand- which were filled with the clothes they had changed out of and other new outfits for all five of them- and his right was occupied by the pink haired boy's own. Kakyoin's eyes were staring up in absolute shock at the blonde man, although Hol Horse was calling for Avdol and Polnareff to come back to him.

"I'm _investigating_, of course." Joseph hissed out, before pursing his lips. "C'mon. I'm sure he's going to move us somewhere new."

He didn't really know what was going on; how he had gotten to Egypt without any memory of ever getting on a plane; why he was now with four other children with very different personalities... there were lots of questions floating around in his mind, honestly. But the one that had him the most curious was the one about this blonde man with the thick American accent (almost _comically_ thick) and what his true identity was.

Before the day was over, he would know the truth!

He'd figure out why Jotaro looked at him with fondness that didn't belong there deep within his eyes later.

~..~..~

Thank for all the love! Hope you enjoyed this chapter and continue liking what I post. Please review!


	3. Chapter 3

Hol Horse made a mental checklist of the things he had accomplished with the kids as he hauled himself into the hotel room he had managed to wheedle his way into by convincing the woman at the front desk that he was indeed a guest that had been registered, unluckily, under an incorrect name by his boss.

(Poor Hal Hobbes, American businessman that had come to Cairo on business. Hol Horse had talked his way into the man's room and made sure to make the hotel believe if anyone else tried to arrive with his name, they were just taking advantage of his business' poor security measures.)

1\. The children had eaten- so they weren't going to starve any time soon.

2\. The kids were all clothed in size-appropriate garments.

3\. All five of the children had agreed to follow him without forming too much of a fuss- mostly because they didn't want to run into Dio ever again and Hol Horse's latest plans were to get as far away from the vampire as was humanly and physically possible.

And, finally, he had managed to accomplish something _amazing: _4\. Kakyoin _trusted_ him.

In all honesty, it hadn't been all that difficult to get the kid to trust him- to a degree. Being no more than four years old and all, the kid's mental capacity wasn't truly large enough to have him questioning the nuances of Hol Horse's sudden appearance in his life. Especially considering how, even though he had acted as their savior, he had been the one asked by Dio to kill them in the first place. Still, even with the complicated nature of their first meeting, it had only taken one conversation to convince the pink haired Japanese boy that he was worthy of his trust.

Apparently, this kid had been able to see his stand for all of his life. Even though he had always been able to see it, he had never met anyone else that _could_. So he had been absolutely caught off guard by the fact that Hol Horse could not only see his stand, but also knew a lot information about what such a thing was.

They had been eating lunch when Hol Horse had let the kid know that stands were actually rather common within their group. Kakyoin had been curious about his gun and had insisted on being allowed to sit beside the man to be able to ask him some questions (Honestly, when Kakyoin had asked to be sat to his left, Hol Horse had not thought much of it; just assumed that the kid wanted to him to be nearby in case he needed help with his food- but he had quickly regretted it when the questions had begun to fly).

Admittedly, Hol Horse was overwhelmed by the end of the round of questioning. Not only had Kakyoin been extremely interested in stands and their inner workings, but also about Hol Horse, the workings of his own stands, and part of his history as an American cowboy.

He... had never been asked so many questions before. So he had been absolutely _affected and taken aback_ by the amount of things the kid had asked. Especially when, at one point when he had gotten so worked up, Kakyoin had asked him multiple questions within the same breath of air and had barely stopped himself to allow Hol Horse to answer said questions.

He'd tried his best, of course, to answer the kid. And that round of questioning had gone from their time eating all the way into their time at the clothing store and had only ceased when Hol Horse had needed to step away from the kids to acquire a hotel room for them.

Now that he was walking back to the kids, he could see that they were still waiting in the same spot, in the same stances, in which he had left them. Kakyoin was standing at the edge of the small circle they had created, eyes wide as excitement filled them up- probably because he had caught sight of the man he was able to ask all the questions to. Jotaro and Joseph were standing a bit behind him, all the while Avdol and Polnareff were sat on the floor... Polnareff's head lolling onto the other boy's shoulder as his eyes drooped and opened in a losing battle against how tired he was.

(Dare he say it? Four year old Polnareff was _adorable!_)

"Did you get a room?" Joseph asked as he looked him over with a certain... _spark_ in his eyes... a spark that Hol Horse didn't even begin to question because of how _exhausted he_ was.

Joseph was up to something.

Yet again, Hol Horse was too tired to even begin to worry about such a thing.

"Yup." he nodded as he began to feel his eyes drooping in a manner similar to Polnareff's own. "C'mon now. Ain't y'all tired too?"

"Polnareff is, Mr. Horse Sir." Kakyoin answered eagerly as he ran up to him, closing the distance between them in a few hurried steps. "But, you never answered my question! Do your bullets lose power the farther they get away from you? Or do you lose the ability to control them?"

He was sure that telling this kid the mechanics to Emperor was a huge mistake on his part. But his sleep clouded mind could barely begin to register the absolute danger it was to be doing such a thing.

With a yawn, he motioned with his right hand for Kakyoin to grab onto him. Then he motioned with his head for the children to follow him- Joseph had helped Avdol get up and get a good grip carrying Polnareff and now the rest of the group was standing at attention, waiting for him.

So he turned around, began to mindlessly answer Kakyoin's questions, and walked the children all the way to the hotel room he had managed to swindle.

When Kakyoin began to ask him if they would be heading back to Japan to get away from Dio and the rest of his followers, Hol Horse noticed that he would regret not being more careful with the answers he gave the child. But then, when the kid asked if they would be flying or taking a boat back to his home country, Hol Horse decided that he didn't really care all that much at the moment- this would be a problem for _future_ Hol Horse.

When they walked into the hotel room, Hol Horse managed to take note of two individual beds and groaned beside himself. That made Kakyoin's observation about the relative peace they had been under cease- and he asked what was wrong.

Hol Horse's mind, at this point, was storming with its need for sleep. So he grunted noncommittally, tried to find something other than a bed to collapse on, and began to hear angels singing when he came across a sofa that looked stiff but seemed long enough to fit at least the size of the major trunk of his body.

"_Don't runaway, please._" he meant to say as he made his way towards the furniture, although he knew for a fact his words slurred and he doubted they were completely intelligible.

He was out like a light before his head had even managed to crash against the unyielding armrest of the couch.

* * *

Hol Horse was snoring up a storm from the couch he had claimed as his bed.

Avdol couldn't help but wince in sympathy at the sight; this man clearly had no idea what he was doing, was completely overwhelmed by just Kakyoin's questions, and had not had a good night's sleep in a while. Of all the adults he had ever met in his life, Hol Horse honestly seemed to be the least prepared to take care of _himself_; much less _five children_.

But Avdol could give credit where it was due- at least it seemed that he was trying his best to fulfill what little he new he needed to do for them.

"He might fall." he commented softly as he lay Polnareff down on the twin bed closest to him, then began to tuck him into the covers.

The younger child mumbled softly in his sleep- whispering unintelligible nothings- as he curled into himself and cuddled into the bed. Polnareff smiled at the sight- even though it was odd, he felt _fond_ over this child he barely knew. From the small amount of time they had spent together, he had slowly began to feel protective over the bubbly and optimistic child. And, although he wasn't sure exactly _why_, he wasn't going to question it either. He had always been rather serious for his age and he had never found it hard to like someone; it was only normal for him to want to help someone so vulnerable out.

"He's a big man. He can take care of himself." the American boy, Joseph, assured him. "For now, we've got to talk about what we know, what we don't know, and what we should do about those things."

Avdol made his way towards the other bed, where Joseph was sitting cross-legged and Kakyoin was pushed up against the headboard, his knees pulled up to his chest. Jotaro was still standing by the side of the bed, with his arms crossed over his chest as he stared with clear distrust at the blonde man passed out on the couch.

The hotel room they were within was simple. Once one crossed in through the door, there was a small hallway with a door in the left wall, most probably leading towards a bathroom. The main area had two beds pushed against the wall towards the right, with a couch (which currently occupied an incredibly tired adult) a few spaces away from the foot of the beds, and a small television in front of it. At the very back of the room, there was a small wardrobe.

The room was small, but comfortable and the beds looked soft.

"Kakyoin." Jotaro grunted, and the boy's eyes widened- undoubtedly caught off guard by the harshness of the other boy's voice.

Avdol didn't blame him. This Jotaro boy... he was _different_. And Avdol wasn't sure if it was a good kind of different, or the bad kind. He just knew that this boy was wary, distrusting, and quiet. One could not get an easy read of his thoughts via the emotions he showed, because he only showed disinterest or suspicion. The latter of which was usually directed at Hol Horse only.

"Y-yes, Jotaro-kun?"

Jotaro closed his eyes and lowered his head towards the ground- the baseball cap over his head cast a heavy shadow over the upper half of his face.

Avdol glanced at Joseph at that moment, only to find him staring... at Hol Horse as well.

These two... were they going to continue so worried about a man that had put his life in danger to save _them_?

"Everything you learned from Hol Horse- tell us."

"Huh?"

Jotaro's frown became something dark- so Avdol decided to step in and convince Kakyoin before they upset this unreadable boy any further.

"You were the one that spent the most amount of time with him today. You asked many questions. Could you please fill us in on everything you learned?"

Kakyoin glanced at him now and, for a flash of a second, Avdol could see fear within those bright eyes. But soon enough, that fear evaporated and changed into nothing short of amazement.

"I learned a lot!"

Once Kakyoin began to speak, it was near impossible to get him to stop talking. But after almost ten minutes of him being the only person within the room to speak, the pink haired boy stopped himself and smiled sheepishly.

"Sorry... I... am overwhelmed."

"Hmm." both Joseph and Jotaro hummed in synchronization- and Avdol suddenly began to wonder if there were any more similarities between them. But he soon stopped himself from pondering such a thing and he smiled at Kakyoin.

"No, it is good you learned so much and were able to tell us. Stands and all their encompass- it _is_ overwhelming."

So Magician's Red... it wasn't a protective spirit... well, it was. But the proper name was _stand_.

Interesting, indeed.

"Well, you've been forthcoming with everything. And I guess we're all stuck together. So I may as well fill you in on what I've been theorizing over for the past day." Joseph cleared his throat, threw his right arm up into the air, only to bring it down harshly with his index finger pointed directly at Hol Horse. "Even though I have no idea what stands are, why a vampire wanted to kill us, or why we're together, I am one hundred percent positive of one thing! That man's name is not Hol Horse! It is Robert E. O. Speedwagon!"

The further the boy spoke, the louder his words became until, by the ending of his statement, he was absolutely shouting.

Avdol tensed in fear, extremely aware of how loud the sound was, and from the way both Kakyoin and Jotaro stared at Joseph through widened eyes, he could tell that they too were worried over the volume.

A tense silence fell over them once Joseph was finished- only broken by the American's excited breathing.

What if Hol Horse had awoken? Would that be a good thing? Would it be a bad thing? How would he react to all four of them getting together to compare notes and dialogue over their current situation? Would he be angered?

These questions and many others flew through Avdol's frazzled mind... until Hol Horse's loud snoring cut through the silence that had befallen them.

"Good grief, you're too loud, Ji-Joseph."

Avdol nodded along with Kakyoin, even though Joseph didn't seem the least bit affected by Jotaro's comment.

~..~..~

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	4. Chapter 4

When he woke up, it was with a crick in his neck, stiffness in his shoulders and neck, and his knees were screaming at him. The first thing he noticed, aside from the joint pain and uncomfortableness of his body, was that he was sleeping on top of a hotel room's couch... and he was, for a single moment, completely lost as to why this was.

He hadn't stayed in a proper hotel room in a while. Normally, he stayed with any of the various girlfriends of his that were eager to put him up- and knew how to cook edible food. And he didn't really enjoy wasting his money unless it was absolutely necessary- so, yeah, hotel rooms were usually out of question simply because of how much they cost.

But as he began to wonder what in tarnation had possessed him to waste money he kind of needed to _save_, he sat up on the couch... and as soon as he looked behind him, he remembered the exact thing that had possessed him. He still didn't truly understand why he had suddenly decided to grow a heart for his most dangerous enemies, but he was stuck with his decisions now.

Right now, there was no time to be looking for help with any of his girlfriends. And the need to get as far away as possible from Dio and his goons meant that he had to be willing to shill out quite a bit of dough to ensure said distance was met as quickly as possible.

The children he had saved yesterday had divided themselves pretty neatly amongst the two beds in the room. Kakyoin and Polnareff were currently underneath the covers of the bed closest to the window- but Hol Horse could only tell this by what very few strands of gray and pink hair he could see peeking out over the pillows that were not being used. Avdol had curled up at the foot of the bed, over the comforter, but wrapped up in a thin sheet.

On the other bed, Joseph currently had one feet precariously close to a sleeping Jotaro's face. While Joseph was sleeping with a hand on his pillow, he had somehow twisted his body in his sleep into an almost unnatural pose. Jotaro, though, was as straight as a rod with his head held stiffly on the pillow. Much like Avdol, his head was by the foot of the bed.

If he hadn't currently been regretting ever having had a heart, Hol Horse would admit that the scene before him was quite endearing.

But, he was kind of busy regretting all of the decisions he had taken the past day, so he wasn't really able to think much about any kind of feelings the scene before him stirred within his heart.

With a sigh, the man forced himself to get up from the suddenly-incredibly stiff he had miraculously been able to fall asleep on the past night. As he stood up, he rolled his shoulders and shifted his neck from one side to another in an attempt to get some feeling other than pain back into his ailing joints. There were quite a few pops and cracks that emanated from him, but he did feel quite a bit of relief afterwards. Still in some pain, but not as tense as before... He was getting old.

What was he going to do with these many kids? How was he supposed to transport them out of Egypt? _Where_ would he even take them to?

He didn't even know how long Alessi's stand could last! For all he knew, those kids could turn into murder-ready adults in the next few minutes, hours, days, or never! And... that was a constant threat he certainly didn't need... or one he even wanted to _think_ about.

He seriously wanted to travel back in time and stop himself from even contemplating to betray Lord Dio… but, seriously, it wasn't as if he could even convince himself _now_ that murdering those kids had been the right thing to do; much less the him in the past that had not had the heart to kill children.

Alright.

He needed to suffer through the consequences of his actions; no amount of mopping would fix or change what he had done. Now all he could truly do was just... _survive_.

With a small sigh, the man made his way towards the bathroom so he could prepare himself for the new day he just _knew_ would hold challenges he didn't need.

~/~

Children, he was sure, were normally difficult to handle without having to worry about their stands.

Four year old Polnareff, now that he was sure that he was sure he was safe, would make friends with the children around him, and had slept off any traces of exhaustion, was a _hellion_.

"And twirl before the stab!"

For the second time that morning, Hol Horse found himself truly regretting having listened to his heart rather than his brain. Because now Polnareff was showing off how wonderful his stand was to his newest friends and he had barely just managed to avoid slicing at Avdol's shirt- so close to the ribs that it may have been fatal if it had connected and wouldn't that be just great? He risks his life and well being to save these idiots, just to have them die because they were now children with too much energy and not enough brains!

Damn him and his stupid heart.

"Polnareff! You must be careful!" Avdol's eyes didn't widen at the threat to his life; instead, they narrowed. "If you had hit me, you would have hurt me. Do you wish to injure me? After everything we have lived through?"

Wait... what?

The silver haired kid's eyes widened and immediately began to tear up. "No! I don't wanna hurt you!"

Now Avdol smiled... and this kid was better at dealing with kids than Hol Horse was. It was very good that he was around to help the cowboy out.

"I understand. Now, please, won't you stop using your stand? It is wonderful, but I am not sure how prudent it is to be using it in such a public area. You might hurt someone, even if you don't mean to."

The tiny version of Silver Chariot disappeared- but it first offered Avdol a wide eyed apologetic look.

"Sorry, Avdol."

Baby Polnareff… if he kept his energy to a minimum and actually _thought_ about what he was about to do... was absolutely _adorable_.

Hol Horse wanted to smack himself for thinking such a thing- these men were his greatest enemies in the world! And what was he doing? Wasting all of his money trying to smuggle them out of Egypt so he could keep them safe from his immortal and incredibly volatile ex-employer!

Maybe he had hurt his head and was now in a coma... at least _that_ would explain how insane his decisions were.

Throughout the exchange between Polnareff and Avdol, Kakyoin had stopped asking him questions to instead watch the events unravel. But now that he could tell that Polnareff would, for at least the next few minutes, behave himself, the pink haired menace-to-Hol-Horse's-mental-stability tugged at the man's hand and pointed through the throngs of people around them and towards the outlet mall they were currently walking towards.

"Are we going there?"

"Mm-hmm." he nodded, and decided to bite the bullet and ask the next question the boy would ask before he could voice it. "We're going to buy y'all some supplies for the trip we'll be taking."

The way they had been walking was a simple formation that allowed Hol Horse to look over all of his charges without having to strain himself too much. Kakyoin held on tightly to his left hand and marched behind Avdol and Polnareff. Every now and again, Avdol was able to grab onto Polnareff's hand- like right now. But more often than not, the young child managed to weasel his hand away and become a danger to himself and the regular humans around them. And walking directly in front of those two, forming the first row of kids, were Joseph and Jotaro.

During their whole trip, both of the older boys had mostly kept to themselves. Jotaro walked with his hands just about trapped inside of the pockets of his jeans, the brim of his dark hat pulled low over his face. Joseph didn't shy away from conversation with Avdol, who was both smart and social enough, to keep up said conversation.

For some reason, after he had spoken up, he saw Joseph's shoulders tense up and his body falter ever so slightly. Because this was an odd and very obvious occurrence, Hol Horse blinked at the boy, wondering just what in the world he had thought of to make him react like that.

But in no time Hol Horse forgot all about Joseph's reaction because Kakyoin began to ask him all about the trip they would be taking- where are we going? How long will we be gone? Are we going to meet the rest of your family? Are we going to go to any museums? Ooh, how about movie theaters- can we go to different movie theaters?

To be so young... this kid was much too smart and cultured for his own good.

~/~

The second shopping trip with the kids/enemies started off rather tame. Hol Horse began to think that maybe he had managed to find himself in the good graces of the karmic forces of the nature, even with all of the stupidity he had committed to in the past day.

He should have known better than to count himself victorious so soon... honestly, he had always had the worst luck. _He should have known better_.

"What in tarnation?"

Kakyoin and Polnareff had been in the middle of looking for backpacks to pack all of their new clothes and toys inside when Hol Horse came across the source of the biggest hiccup in his life to date.

"What's wrong Mr. Hol Horse sir?"

The blonde's eyes narrowed as he focused on the people he could have sworn he saw in the distance when he glanced away from the youngest kids to try and find traces of the older boys. While he had stayed with the young'uns, he had allowed the other three to head off on their own to browse the more mature sections of the kids aisles for things that would be to their taste. And as he looked for them, he came across two silhouettes that struck fear through his very core.

While Mariah could blend into a crowd of regular mall goers with only a simple change of clothes, she hadn't opted for an inconspicuous outfit today. And Alessi's hair was so obvious it stuck out like a glowing sore thumb.

Oh shit... did he look like that with his own clothes?

_He needed to find clothes for himself_.

"Shh!" he hissed at both of his charges as he swooped down to the floor, bending uncomfortably at his knees. He was getting old. "We need to hurry up and find the others!"

"Why?" Kakyoin asked with wide, innocent eyes.

"That's easy." Polnareff smiled and Hol Horse watched in pure, paralyzing horror as he cupped his tiny hands around his much-too-big mouth to shout out, "Joseph! Jotaro! Avdol! C'mere!"

A terrible shiver broke across his back... and Hol Horse didn't have the time to think. He wrapped his arms around both boys, barely managed to get a hold of all of the things they had grabbed in the store to buy, and immediately bolted away from where they had stood. He kept himself low, so he could not be seen over the racks of clothes, as he just about sprinted around the store to find the rest of his charges.

With his heart beating a mile a minute, he was lucky enough to be able to collect all of the children and pay for everything they had picked out before Mariah and Alessi were able to catch up with him.

He didn't know why those two hadn't even _seemed_ to attempt to follow after him. But he didn't care either. He wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth; if Dio's henchmen were patrolling for them, it was a blessing that they hadn't heard Polnareff's shout.

But he did know that he couldn't continue to push his luck. The fact that he had managed to see the shadows of those two meant that Dio was actively looking for the kids he had not killed- and, very possibly, he was bloodthirsty for Hol Horse's head on a pike. This fact let Hol Horse know that he needed to leave Egypt and quick. They had been lucky in avoiding a confrontation today. They couldn't hope for luck to continue on their side.

So, instead of returning to the hotel like he had originally planned to do, Hol Horse decided that it was about time they headed towards an airport. Forget planning anything out- he had always been better at thinking on his feet than sitting down and contemplating for a long amount of time.

* * *

"If anyone asks, you're all my adopted children. Here are your identification cards- _don't lose them_. These prove you're allowed to be leaving the country with me."

Kakyoin tilted his head to the side as Hol Horse wrapped a lanyard with a plastic id attached to it around his neck. Then he grabbed hold of the card suspended over his stomach and looked down at it- the card had his picture, a birthday that wasn't his own, and other information he knew for a fact was inaccurate. The info that stood out the most, though, for being so wrong was his name.

"Uh Mr. Hol Horse sir, I'm Kakyoin Noriaki."

"Shh!" the man gesticulated wildly with his hands, and immediately explained, "For the next few days, your name's Kakyoin Howard. All of your last name's are Howard. And my name's Hal Howard. Got it?"

Polnareff, who stood to his right and was blinking at his id in the same kind of stupefaction as Kakyoin, raised his arm. "Why?"

Hol Horse frowned down at them both and pinched the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger. He placed a hand on his hip, shook his head, and sighed, "Because I'm technically smuggling you kids out of Egypt. That's illegal. So I've gotta make it seem like it's legal."

Kakyoin looked over at Polnareff and agreed with the look the other boy gave him. He was just as confused. "Why?" he asked and Hol Horse turned to look up at the ceiling of the large airport they were currently within.

"We can trust Hol- I mean, _Hal Horace._" Joseph answered for the adult, and Hol Horse groaned audibly.

"Howard, Joseph. It's Hal Howard." Avdol cleared his throat and Joseph's face immediately reddened at his mistake. But soon Avdol was turning to him and Polnareff, ignoring the embarrassed American. "It's a game, you two. Our goal is to travel through the air and we have to play at being a different person. That way, we can attain victory."

Kakyoin blinked. He looked over at Polnareff, who was also blinking as he processed the information. Then Kakyoin asked, "If I have to play at being someone else... can I be a sumo wrestler?"

Polnareff gasped, "Wait! That's what Avdol meant? If you're a sumo wrestler, then I'm a fencer! _En guard!_" as soon as he shouted this out, the silver haired boy turned to him and tucked his left arm behind his back, all the while bringing his right up in front of him.

Kakyoin smiled and took a step back, bending his knees as he raised his arms in front of him. "_Hayime_!"

Just as he was going to charge at Polnareff, Hol Horse grabbed a hold of his shoulder and stopped him. But instead of scolding him and telling them that they had misunderstood Avdol, the man merely murmured, "You can be whatever you please _as long_ as you promise to leave the roughhousing once we board the plane."

"Sure thing!" he agreed, then pursed his lips, "Where are we going?"

Hol Horse paled.

"Jotaro and you're from Japan, right?" he questioned, receiving a nod from them both. He sighed to himself and shrugged, "Guess we're heading to Japan then."

~..~..~

So sorry for taking so long to update! But I hope y'all enjoyed this new chapter!

Please do review and tell me what you thought!


	5. Chapter 5

The plan was simple in its inception. It was; because of the aforementioned simplicity of its inception; supposed to be completely easy to carry out.

Honestly, Hol Horse should have known better than to believe anything would ever be simple or easy in his life. And, at this point, he was starting to suspect it was the Jojo's fault. His life had been difficulty before, yes. But it had never been _this_ unforeseeable!

They were supposed to get onto a plane leaving Cairo and head towards Nagoya, in Aichi prefecture. If memory served him well, Jotaro's hometown was an hour or so away from that city, so they would only have to catch a rental before they were well on their way to what may be a safe place for all of them. And after all of hassle he had gone through to weasel their way onto this trip by buying fake identities and haggling a rat of a man for high priced airplane tickets, Hol Horse was more than ready for the calming stress that came from doing something as mundane as renting a car.

Honestly, at this point, all Hol Horse was thinking about was how he would be able to drop one child when they reached Jotaro's home. His parents would be shocked, sure, to see that their child had reverted back to a younger age. But he was pretty sure that they would be more than happy to take care of raising the boy... for a second time, of course.

Kakyoin's family... he didn't think he could return the boy to them. He still remembered when Dio had first brought the teenager into their fold; before he had been entranced by the vampire's bain-washing bud. And he had been the kind of kid that had not even known what to call the power he had. He had barely even been capable of connecting with people; granted, the people that followed Dio were all mostly insane...

Was he getting attached?

Because there was no reason to be worried about the kid's family. He had been raised well once. And the less kids he had to lug around, the lesser the risk of getting all of them killed at the same time.

Joseph and Avdol were all _old_. He doubted they had anyone in their lives aside from themselves. And, well, in Joseph's case, his wife. But no woman, especially as old as he guessed the guy's wife had to be, deserved to have to _raise their husband_. And he knew for a fact that Avdol had no family outside of the Joestar family.

Polnareff's parents were still alive. But they were older folks- it would be a disservice to try and dump the tiny menace on them.

So... out of all of the kids, the only one he could actually give back to his parents was Jotaro. Kakyoin too, if his heart would stop making him feel guilty for no good reason!

With the game plan created, they had gone to board the plane.

And immediately Hol Horse found out that he had been marginally screwed over by the rat that had sold him the tickets. He had promised that all six chairs were together. But, no, that was a complete lie. Because _three _chairs were together in _one part of the plane._ The other three were together as well... at the very back of the plane!

Avdol had been the kid to solve the problem. And it was a good thing to, Hol Horse had begun to think about possibly trying to convince the attendant before them, even though she was a hard looking woman with a clear chip on her shoulder.

"Our father should be with Kakyoin and Joseph. Jotaro, Polnareff, and I will all go to the seats in the back."

Kakyoin and Polnareff had cheered; Hol Horse had bit his tongue to stop himself from shouting out at the new round of torture that Kakyoin would start up once they were in the air; and neither of the Joestars tried to argue.

So that's how Hol Horse found himself sandwiched in between a chatty Kakyoin and a blessedly quiet Joseph. The pink haired boy had crowed for the window seat and Hol Horse had obliged in the hopes that having a view might keep the child's mind distracted- if only for a few minutes. Joseph had wanted the aisle seat, probably to not have to jump over anyone to head to the bathroom. And Hol Horse hadn't felt like arguing for extra leg space.

From this spot in the plane, he had to stretch and turn around to look at the rest of his charges. He even had to squint his eyes a bit, just to see them clearly because of how far they were from him. But he knew that he didn't have to actually worry about those three. Jotaro was a miniature version of his teenage self- which was a blessing at this point- and Avdol was a miniature adult, even though his brain had regressed to his body's age. The only troublesome one there was Polnareff and he listened to Avdol.

The trip was going to be long, but at least it wasn't going to be too harsh, he hoped. The kids all had toys and books and such things to distract themselves that they had bought with his money. And now that he thought about it... he was going to have to find work soon. These kids were draining him of everything he owned!

With a sigh, the man grabbed his hat and plucked it off of his head. He turned to Kakyoin, who was bounding excitedly in his chair as he gazed out at the scenery surrounding the unmoving airplane. As soon as he noticed how focused the boy, he decided it was best to not bother him. So instead he turned to Joseph, who was frowning down at the walkman in his hand as if he couldn't figure it out. He poked the boy's arm softly, only to have him jump instantly, eyes widened like a surprised cat.

"Calm down there, son." he smiled softly, admitting to himself that the kid's reaction was kind of cute. "I'm gonna take a nap. I've got my belt on, so you don't have to worry 'bout waking me up 'fore we start flying."

Joseph stared at him through determined blue eyes that floored Hol Horse for a moment. He was absolutely taken aback by how serious this kid looked. Wasn't Joseph Joestar supposed to be a goofball? 'Cause this kid surely didn't act like that!

"I'll make sure no one wakes you up!"

The volume was a tad bit more loud than was necessary, but Hol Horse could appreciate the enthusiasm.

"I'll be mighty grateful for that." he moved to settle on his chair, placing his hat over his face. And once under the comforting darkness of one of his most priced possessions, Hol Horse felt himself beginning to relax.

Everything was going to be fine, he was sure.

~/~

Not even a minute had passed before he was woken up by Kakyoin shaking his right shoulder. Hol Horse frowned softly to himself, moved the hat downwards so only one eye was uncovered, and looked over at the child. The boy pointed towards the screen that was a few feet away from him and asked if he could buy the headphones for the movie the next time one of the stewardesses came over.

Hol Horse didn't even think about the money he would be wasting. He just saw an opportunity to distract the child and he took it. Then he handed his wallet over to Joseph, told him to make sure that the other three were given the same chance as he and Kakyoin, and then told both kids he would be falling asleep now and he really needed to rest.

Kakyoin crooned that he promised he wouldn't bother him again for a while; Joseph _swore_ he wouldn't let anyone wake him up.

Hol Horse moved the hat back over his eyes and drifted off in record time.

~/~

Joseph tried to keep his promise. The kid really did. But, honestly, Hol Horse may have been better off if the kid hadn't tried as hard as he had.

"My dad's really tired! What you're saying isn't even a real problem, lady!"

"Yeah, lady! Our dad needs to sleep!"

In all honesty, when he began to hear these high-pitched growls in his sleep, Hol Horse hadn't thought much of them. He wasn't anyone's father, after all. And he had to answer for no one other than himself. So, even though he heard these muffled things through the sweet haze of dreams, he just shifted a little in his seat and tried to get a bit more comfortable.

"That boy is scaring the rest of our passengers with his scowl. He made a baby cry! That child is a problem for _everyone on this plane_."

Okay, so now he knew with certainty that whatever was going on, it had nothing to do with him. Because he didn't have boys. He didn't have kids. And no woman ever looked at him and saw anything other than a perfect specimen and gentleman. He could sleep easy.

"That's just Jotaro's natural face, lady."

Oh, wait. Jotaro _was_ his problem.

Stirring at the name of one of the biggest problems in his life, Hol Horse's consciousness finally met up with his memory. And once they worked together, the cowboy was forced to remember that these kids _were_ his problem. And, yeah, their cover story was that he was their father. He _did_ have to answer for people other than himself for the first time in a _long_ time.

Huh... exactly _how _long had it been since...

Best not to think about that.

Shaking his head to try and make himself alert, Hol Horse pulled his hat off of his face for the second time that day. And he found two stewardesses glaring over at Joseph and Kakyoin- when had the boy jumped out of his seat and onto Hol Horse's lap? How hadn't he even felt the weight of the kid's body?

Completely dazed by the sight before him, Hol Horse cleared his throat, "Anything I can do to help ease this here standoff?"

The woman with the short hair, who was closest to Joseph and was clearly younger than the woman standing a bit beside her, turned her glare onto him. And she immediately huffed, "Your boy- the one with the black hat- he's scaring all of our passengers. That baby hasn't stopped crying ever since she looked at him three hours ago."

Brain still fogged by sleep, it took Hol Horse a little bit of time to process the words the woman had said. But once they had processed, he couldn't help but balk at what she had said. "You're insulting my boy's face!" he heard Kakyoin harrumph in agreement with him, all the while Joseph just stopped short of hissing at the women. "Now you know as well as I do that no one can change their God-given face. You can't possibly be asking-"

"Sir, do you think you could talk to your son?" the older of the women, the one with the bright green eyes that shined with warmth and worry, interrupted him softly. "The problem is not _his face_. It's what he's doing with it. The glare is scaring that baby- we have tried everything under the sun to get her to calm down, but one look at him sets her off again."

Hol Horse's indignation quelled a little upon hearing this woman's voice. It was as tired as his own, really. And that made him feel guilty immediately.

He looked away from both women as he contemplated her words. Joseph took his silence as an opportunity to speak up again, and Kakyoin backed him up.

These kids were _terrifying_.

"Then move that baby or something. My brother can't change his face, but that baby can be moved away from him!"

"Yeah!"

Hol Horse sighed heavily and grabbed Kakyoin by the waist, plucked him off his lap, and returned to his seat. Too surprised by the action, the boy didn't fight him off and allowed himself to be picked up and sat down without any issue.

Once that was done, Hol Horse stood up from his chair, "I'm sorry for the hassle. I'll go talk to the boy."

"What? But-"

"C'mon now, Joseph. Ain't no harm in going to have a small talk with Jotaro." he tried to assuage the boy as he stepped over his legs and onto the aisle of the plane.

He heard the boy huff in answer to his words. But if he said something other than just make the noise, he wasn't able to hear. He was too focused on apologizing to the women before him over their rude treatment by himself and the kids.

With that done, he made his way towards the direction of the other boys. And on the way there, he could hear the shrill cries of a baby in distress- and he could totally understand now why the women were so desperate to try and calm her down. The cries were muffled and low where he and the two boys sat. But over here? They were _deafening_.

When he reached the other half of the children, it was to find Avdol's face covered up by his hands; like he, the dark skinned by had been unfortunate enough to end up seated in the middle. Polnareff, who was by the window seat, was blissfully unaware of anything occurring around him because of the headphones covering his ears. And Jotaro, in the seat closest to the aisle, had his arms crossed stiffly over his chest and his face pulled into one of the nastiest scowls Hol Horse had ever witnessed in his life.

So nasty the scowl was that the man's heart froze for a moment and his brain clicked the 'flight' instinct into overdrive. Even though Jotaro had been de-aged like the rest of these men, he was so serious and so much like _himself_ that Hol Horse was _still_ afraid of him.

Gulping down his cowardice, though, Hol Horse crouched down beside the scary looking child. And once his mouth was only a few centimeters away from the kid's ear, he whispered, "Think you can tone down the murder aura?" he whispered, voice shaking a little. And, damn, was he so much of a coward that he couldn't even talk to _this kid_? Steeling his resolve, he continued in a steadier tone, "Is there anything I can do to make you feel better?"

Maybe if he did something the kid wanted, he wouldn't have a reason to glare so harshly at the world around him.

Jotaro turned to look at him in the blink of an eye. And Hol Horse retracted when the harsh glare was turned fully onto him.

"Take me to my mother." Jotaro… even though he was supposed to be a _child_... he sounded exactly like he did when he was a teenager- just with a slightly squeakier voice.

After a few seconds passed of no highly violent attack hitting him, Hol Horse breathed out and nodded at Jotaro. "That's the plan, kiddo." on his haunches, he scratched a little bit at his chin in an attempt to simulate _not being fully scared out of his skin because of this kid_. "We land in Nagoya an' then we head on over to your hometown."

Just as when he turned to look at him, Jotaro glanced away in the blink of an eye. He grunted out "Good." and said nothing more.

Hol Horse sighed and looked over at Avdol, who looked like he'd rather be anywhere other than in between these two boys right about now.

Poor kid... but he had done this to himself, really.

Straightening up, Hol Horse offered one final piece of conversation before he returned to his seat. "Just try and not look so murderous. _Please_."

~/~

When the baby's cries subsided, Hol Horse knew that Jotaro had been kind enough to rearrange his scowl into something much less threatening. And so he had been allowed to fall asleep once more.

~/~

He was abruptly woken up by the violent shaking of their airplane and the announcement of the need for an emergency landing because of the immediate medical needs of one of the passengers in the plane.

They landed in a non-descript, mostly unimportant, and perfectly normal town called Morioh. If they were to fly and then catch a train, the shortest amount of time from where they landed to where he wanted to go was _six_ _hours_.

Nothing could ever go his way, huh?

~..~..~

Hope you enjoyed! Please review!

Stay safe!


	6. Chapter 6

I'm gonna muddle up the timeline a little, but that's because I've got an idea for a story in mind and I have little regard for cannon when Araki himself can't even keep straight the logic he sets in place for the Jojo world.

~..~..~..

They had been forced stay in the newly renovated Morioh Grand Hotel. Why? Because of Jotaro's scowl scaring all of the people within the plane- including the stewardesses and pilots.

Honestly, if Hol Horse had been feeling more rested, he would have argued that a bunch of grown adults were being illogically terrified of a _child_ and they needed to just tighten their britches and get over their fear. But, he was both incredibly tired and not particularly inclined towards feeling like a complete hypocrite. So he had allowed the airline to accommodate them with a complementary hotel stay until they were able to be put on the next plane to their initial destination.

From the death glares that he was being sent from Jotaro, he knew that the boy was not particularly happy with the decision. But, while Hol Horse was scared shitless of the boy, this was mostly his fault. So he'd just steer clear from the child for the next few hours by, hopefully, catching up on the much needed sleep he required to be a properly functioning adult.

He should have known that he wasn't going to be allowed to catch up on that sleep he so yearned for.

"Let's go to the museum!"

Kakyoin and Polnareff's arms were absolutely filled with all kinds of brochures they had picked up from the display case by the front desk that offered up all of the attractions offered by Morioh. The papers were all colorful and gaudy in that way that screamed 'We need business! Please come to us!'. And Hol Horse couldn't believe this was what his life had come to.

"No, let's go to the horse ranch! You can ride around on a pony, Kakyoin!"

"Pony? Let's go to the ranch!"

Hol Horse could only stare in dismay as the two children came together to chorus about how much they wished to go to some ranch with ponies they could ride and pigs they could and cotton candy they could eat...

Oh Lord, what had he done to deserve this hell on earth?

~/~

The walk to the room they had been assigned was filled with the excited chatter of the youngest children. They were telling each other about everything they would do once they reached the ranch and how much fun they would be able to have once they had got on top of their horses and started to ride. Kakyoin even began to contemplate a possible name for the pony he would befriend today.

Joseph and Avdol would offer some kind of comment or another whenever either of the menaces took a second to breathe. But their commentary was more in the line of "This sounds promising" than the "Just let Hol Horse- I mean Hal Howard- sleep" that Hol Horse hoped for.

Jotaro just continued his silent glowering and Hol Horse didn't even bother trying to think about what was going through that boy's mind. It was probably either a plot for his murder or a whole bunch of anger. And he certainly did not have the right mind to be thinking about such possibilities at the moment. He could barely keep himself from contemplating just ditching these kids and leaving them to their own luck- which he _wouldn't do_. But... well, he'd thought about it at least once at this point.

With the newfangled contraption known as a keycard in hand, Hol Horse walked up to the supposedly large room they had been promised after they had been pulled off of the flight.

It had been a doozy trying to understand this keycard. Regular keys for a hotel were one thing. And them punch cards that were used in the bigger hotels chains were another thing, but still simple enough to understand. But these magnetic thingermajigs that magically unlocked the door they were connected to... well, Hol Horse had never been particularly good at understanding, much less _accepting_, futuristic changes.

Honestly, he just missed the regular metallic keys he had used his whole life. Now those were the good old days...

"If you wish, father, I can use the keycard."

Hol Horse glanced over at Avdol with complete confusion, "Why d'you think that'd be necessary, son?"

Wasn't it marginally _weird _how easily they had stepped into the roles of father and sons? Wasn't it _completely jarring _that none of them had come across any issues in starting to call him a father or dad than his actual or fake names? Wasn't it _kind of absolutely worrying _that he found it just about natural to call them little terms of affection like son and boy and not the much more neutral form of _kid_?

"You are glaring at it as if it threatens to eat your hand." the child commented plainly before smiling softly, as if trying to reassure Hol Horse that he _wasn't _being completely irrational with the contraption. "I would not mind opening the door in your stead."

Honestly, he was sure there was some insult he was supposed to find within the kid's words. But he didn't properly care to spend brain cells trying to find the insult. So the cowboy merely sighed and nodded, holding the hand that held the keycard out to the dark skinned boy. Avdol's smile became just a bit brighter as he reached out to grab the piece of plastic.

With that sorted out, Hol Horse focused himself on carrying his and the youngest kid's bags. They were much too busy bouncing around the walls to properly carry their backpacks. And while Hol Horse didn't truly worry too much over worldly possessions, he needed them backpacks to last a while. And they wouldn't last too much if they were subjected to the constant shaking and vibrating of those kids' bodies now that they were completely excited about the trip they would be taking after they settled into their hotel room.

Luckily, the boys' bags weren't too heavy. And his own was filled with only the clothes he needed to disguise himself as a common Joe, rather than the cowboy mercenary he probably looked like right now... he should probably change now that they had the down time. He was a walking liability at this point if he wanted to remain undetected by Dio's forces.

"Stop."

As if Jotaro had complete control over him, Hol Horse's body froze when he heard the order.

It took the kids a bit more convincing to follow through. But when Jotaro grabbed a hold of Joseph's shoulder and forcibly pulled him back, Avdol, Kakyoin, and Polnareff took a step back- away from the dark haired brooding machine- and closer to Hol Horse.

"What's the matter with you?" Joseph hissed as he turned a glare onto the child that had manhandled him. "You don't have to be so rough, you know!"

"Shut up." Jotaro commanded as he glared in the direction of where their room was supposed to be. "Hol Horse. Our door is open."

A chill ran down his spine.

Their room was open already? _Impossible_...

The proof, though, was right in front of them. Their room was 250. This was the room that at the end of the hall they were in, the last door in this stretch. And it wasn't completely closed, as it should have been. There was a thin strip of darkness at the bottom, which was caused by the door having been left slightly ajar.

_Impossible._

But a small voice in the back of his mind told him that he was being much too childish: of course it was possible that someone had broken into their room. They were currently being hunted down because they had all thrown some kind of wrench into Dio's evil plans. It was really only a matter of time before someone managed to finally track and pin them down.

Even if it wasn't one of Dio's followers, it could be anyone from his past that had finally decided to make him pay for whatever trick or lie he had fooled them with. Lord knew he had more enemies than friends at this point in life. Hell, he doubted that there proportion had ever been in his favor at any point in the past.

He should have run away. That had always been his way, after all. Run away until whatever was chasing you grew too tired to care about you anymore. But... something inside of him _begged_ him to find out who had broken into their room _before_ they had even managed to settle into it. I'd they had managed to hunt them down so effectively, they were to be feared.

Everything within him was yelling to run away.

But... he needed to find out _who _had been so effective... and, if possible, he maybe could even take them out.

"Get to the elevator. Call for it to take us back down to the lobby. Then wait for me with the doors opened." he began to instruct the children, grabbing onto Kakyoin's shoulder to push him back in the direction they had been heading. "I'm going to find out who broke in. And then we're leaving."

Of course he wasn't about to inform them that he possibly planned to commit murder. He didn't want to have to deal with the repercussions of letting these children find out that he was a more effective killer than caretaker.

"If I'm not running to them elevators in exactly a minute and a half, leave without me."

"But-"

It was touching for Kakyoin to be the first to try and put up a fight. But Hol Horse wasn't about to endanger their lives any more than he was already doing by having them travel with him.

"No buts." he cut in smoothly, then looked over at Jotaro. The boy was looking at him through narrowed eyes that _for once _weren't burning with anger, hatred, disdain, or irritation. His eyes were narrowed in _confusion_. "Jotaro, you're in charge 'til I get back. The destination is the pony ranch the boys were talking about. If I don't go with you, I'll meet you there."

"Why do you sound as if you are about to die?" Avdol was holding onto Polnareff's hand, keeping him from running away. Even though he was worried, he was facing the elevator. Good kid.

Hol Horse attempted to smile reassuringly at the boys. He truly tried to look as if he was one hundred percent confident in what he was about to do. But he could only fake so much confidence when his hands were beginning to shake like a acorn calf's knees.

"Just think of this like a game of Simon Says. Follow everything I say perfectly, and there'll be a great prize in the end."

No one asked what would happen if they lost. He was grateful for that.

"Now get!"

It took them a while, but eventually the kids started moving off. And soon enough, Hol Horse found himself alone in the hallway that led into the room they had found mysteriously opened.

He took a moment to breathe in; collect his thoughts and calm his racing heart.

He was being foolish.

People that tried to be heroes by themselves... they were usually the first to die, weren't they? And he had no need to find out who was hunting them. He just needed to make space between them.

But if he found out who they were, he'd know who was in the most amount of danger: himself or the kids. He'd know who had the access to extreme perception in tracking them down. And he may as well even be able to kill the person that was so good at finding them- and that would give them some breathing space.

He was being a damn fool. And he knew it was the best choice for all of them, even if he damn well knew it was also the dumbest choice.

He should be running to the elevator. He would have been running there any other day.

Emperor appeared in his hand and his hand practically molded the physical body of his stand.

He was being a damned fool.

* * *

Jotaro had him and Kakyoin put on the earphones that came with his and Avdol's Walkmans. Polnareff didn't understand why, especially because he wasn't a big fan of the music that Jotaro had playing. And he understood even less why he had to listen to the music when Jotaro put it on an incredibly high volume.

It felt as if the heavy drums and guitar were rattling his ears and his brain did not appreciate the feeling.

But Polnareff knew that he didn't want to make Jotaro mad. And he could tell from the tension in the air that something big was going down- even if he could not understand just what, exactly, was actually happening around him.

The minute and a half they were supposed to wait for Hol Horse hadn't passed when the man came back. Immediately, Polnareff knew that something had happened. He looked pale, his eyes were wide, and his body seemed to be trembling ever so slightly.

He fell to his knees directly in front of him. And Polnareff could only stare in shock as the blonde man wrapped his arms around him and pulled him into a tight hug that crushed his upper body.

He didn't know how to react. He had never seen an adult look like this. So he turned his gaze towards Avdol, hoping he would have some answers.

Avdol's own face was marred with a heavy frown, and his attention was completely on Hol Horse.

For a moment, Polnareff had no idea what he was supposed to do.

Then, he felt the earphone on his left being moved ever so slightly. His ear was hit by sudden cold and then, he heard Hol Horse whisper, "Use Silver Chariot to destroy the cameras. You can see them over my left shoulder."

Hol Horse had positioned his body in a way that Polnareff was almost completely engulfed by it. But when he peered over the man's shoulder, he could see the cameras he had been talking about.

Swiftly, he sent out his best friend to destroy all of the cameras. Their flimsy metal stood no chance against Silver Chariot's awesome power and soo the two cameras in the hallway were no more.

As soon as he heard the electric sizzling that signaled the cameras' destruction, Hol Horse stood up from the ground. And now... well, Polnareff could only stare at how _normal_ he looked.

"Alright, boys. Who's ready to go to the ranch?"

~/~

When they reached the lobby of the hotel, Hol Horse asked them to go on ahead and fetch a cab for them; he needed to do something very quickly before they left the hotel.

"What are you going to do?" he asked the adult, his curiosity over the strangeness of everything that had happened in the last few minutes finally reaching his tipping point.

He had been quiet for a long time! And he wanted to understand what was happening!

"Just gotta have a quick conversation at the front desk about the situation we ran into to let them know we won't be staying in the hotel." Hol Horse's smile was wide, but his face didn't reflect any sort of happiness. His eyes... they were _hurt._

"But-"

"Come on, Polnareff." Avdol's hand grabbed his and began to pull him in the direction of the entrance. "Remember? This is just a game of father says. If we do as he says, we will receive a prize."

But Polnareff found that hard to believe. Everyone was acting strange- _even Avdol_. They were saying everything was alright, but Polnareff could tell they were worried- _scared even._ But he didn't understand why!

Against his will, he was forced to leave the adult in charge of them behind once more. And Polnareff cursed his young age; Avdol, Joseph, and Jotaro all seemed like they understood what was going on! It was just him and Kakyoin left in the dark!

Speaking of Kakyoin- when Polnareff turned to look at him, it was to find that he didn't seem pleased at all to be dragged behind an unflinching Jotaro. His glare was one that seemed modeled after the older Japanese boy's own, and that thought was terrifying to Polnareff. How could someone like _Kakyoin_ glare like _Jotaro_?

That was scary.

By the time Hol Horse came back to them, they had managed to flag down a taxi. Joseph was the one that took on explaining to the man where they wanted to go and that they were waiting for their father and were not, in fact, a bunch of runaways.

"Is there a problem here?" Hol Horse asked as he stepped towards them, "Is the ranch that hard to get to?"

The taxi driver frowned at him, red faced from the argument he had gotten into with Joseph. And Joseph huffed in frustration, "He didn't believe we were waiting for you! He thought we were trying to run away or something!"

"That happens more often than you think, kid!" the driver groucjed back and ooh! Joseph's face was just as red now. These guys were funny. "I'm not about to fall for urchin tricks." but he soon breathed in and addressed Hol Horse in a tone that was just a tiny bit less angered. "Kid needs to learn manners."

"Why I oughtta!"

"So, I'm their father." Hol Horse stepped in between the two, intercepting the punch Joseph seemed ready to throw. "I needed to take care of something inside but now I'm here. Can you give us the ride?"

The driver's fuzzy moustache crinkled as his dark eyes narrowed in thought.

Joseph, in the meantime, fumed about stupid adults not knowing anything.

"Ah, fine. Just don't let me hear anymore of that tyke's grumblings."

Hol Horse sighed. Then he glanced behind him, took a good look at a clearly angered Joseph, and soon shook his head. "No deal. We'll wait for the next taxi."

Polnareff was delighted to see the driver's face absolutely plummet. Served him right for being super mean and insulting Joseph an calling them a bunch of liars.

Good riddance.

Joseph's anger seemed to vanish, exactly like the driver's smugness. But while the driver sulked away to go lick his wounds, Joseph tapped on Hol Horse's shoulder. "We're going to have to wait a while for the next taxi."

Polnareff felt his hand getting squeezed by Avdol. But when he turned to look at the older boy, it was to find that he hadn't tightened his grip to grab his attention. He had done it subconsciously. Because instead of looking down at him, Avdol was looking at Hol Horse with a soft smile on his lips.

"Yeah, well, can't no one get away with insulting my boys."

Honestly, this whole trip had been dizzying and Polnareff hadn't really spent all that much time trying to figure anything out. Hol Horse seemed nice enough and appeared as if he had some kind of plan in mind to deal with them all. Even without all of the secrets they were trying to keep, Polnareff knew there were a lot of things he didn't understand about where he was in his life.

But right now, Polnareff was very sure of at least one thing. Hol Horse was a pretty good guy.

..~..~..

Hope you liked! Please review to tell me your thoughts. And do stay safe, kay?


	7. Chapter 7

Honestly, out of all of Dio's followers, he was glad that the person that had broken into the hotel room had been D'Arby Jr. He'd never liked the guy all that much- too cocky and sadistic for his tastes.

So cocky, in fact, that he had decided to catch a nap in the large hotel bed rather than stay awake for the moment when they would undoubtedly meet.

He hadn't hesitated. Setting up the room to look like a sniper from one of the surrounding buildings being the culprit of the murder hadn't taken much time. He had merely had to open the window in the room, which was to the right of the bed, to shoot through it. Then he had only had to close the window back up so that the bullet would shatter through it from the outside, so the glass would fall inside, and then hit D'Arby's head.

In all honesty, his body had moved of its own accord. He'd barely had to think too much about what he had been doing. He had been a professional mercenary for most of his life now. This was a pretty straightforward situation- he had been forced to come up with much more convoluted plans before.

Emperor had gone off in his hand without a thought towards hesitation. It had been natural to set it off, it hadn't even felt like he had to put any weight behind his finger as he squeezed the trigger.

Possibly, it hadn't taken too much thought to decide on this path because it had been the younger D'Arby brother, rather than the older. Dio's faithful butler was a mean sonnuvabitch with a mean streak longer than a lunkhead was stupid. Sadistic and arrogant; certainly not someone he could feel much empathy for.

After the white hotel sheets began to stain with the crimson viscosity that had previously been inside of the ex-butler's body, Hol Horse made his way towards the air conditioning unit in the room. He grabbed a hold of the ends of his poncho and covered his fingers with it as he turned the unit up the coldest setting. It wasn't particularly useful to do this now when only in a few minutes he would be contacting the police, but it would at least be seen as, possibly, a sloppy professional having tried to cover the crime up.

Soon after having done that, he schooled his features into a look of fear. While there were no cameras within the hotel room, he had known there were within the hallway. So he played up being an innocent and ignorant tourist as he made his way towards the elevator and then he asked Polnareff to destroy the cameras so there would be further reason to focus on a kind of hit- maybe yakuza, maybe another kind of mob, possibly even a begrudged lover, he didn't really care.

It spoke to the life he had lived that he had managed to set up a convincing crime scene that pointed to anyone other than him in a matter of less than a minute.

With a small sigh, Hol Horse rubbed the bridge of his nose. The police officer that had picked him and the kids up at the ranch was looking at the children with a soft fondness within his light brown eyes. From that look and from the way he had worked to make the children as comfortable as possible since the moment they had been driven to the police station, Hol Horse could tell that this man was sympathetic towards younger people.

"We're almost done, Mr. Howard." the detective that had taken the lead in interrogating him handed him a glass of water, all the while his partner made his way towards the children and the police officer that had hovered around them. "We just need to take down your contact information in case we need to talk to you again."

"I'm just eager to put as much space between this place and my kids." he breathed out, shaking his head as he forced his voice to quiver. "I'm lucky Jotaro noticed our door was open... the scene they may have walked into..."

It was worrying to him that he wasn't completely faking the current sentiment. He _was_ horrified at the very idea of having these kids even getting _marginally close_ to the things he normally did on the job. They were innocent in the most genuine definition of the word. And he wanted to protect that innocence... he didn't want them knowing what he had to do to ensure their safety.

"It was a stroke of luck that they were able to avoid such a scene." the man answered sympathetically, "I am truly sorry you had to see the body for yourself; although I am grateful that you called in this murder as soon as you reached the front desk. And I am also grateful you told us where you would be heading before you left the hotel."

He nodded shakily, closed his eyes, and breathed in heavily. This wasn't the first person he had killed- far from it and he had never even tried to keep count; so he wasn't really all that shaken by what he had seen. But he knew how to act like someone that had just witnessed something traumatic and he knew he had to act in such a manner to truly sell a somewhat shaky story.

There were going to be more questions than answers about this murder. The biggest two being what was this oddly dressed man doing sleeping within Hal Howard's hotel room and just where in the world had the bullet that did him in disappear to. This would be one of those police cases that would be deemed unsolvable in a short amount of time; although it would become mythical because of all of the inconsistencies and mysteries to it.

It wasn't the clean-cut, picture-perfect cover-up he normally strove for, but it was certainly better work than others could have accomplished.

Once he had given the police the necessary information of this new identity, he cleared his throat. "Can I get goin' now? I've got to scramble to find a new place for us to stay. And then we're getting the hell out of Morioh." he lifted his hand with his thumb raised, pointing in the direction of his kids.

The detective nodded and stood up. Hol Horse followed, his movements deliberately slow, and soon looked around the station.

It was a run of the mill police station inside of Japan. There were rows of desks, files and papers neatly stacked on them, and a few people milling around. The police officer that had picked them up had wrangled the children towards his own desk while Hol Horse had been walked to the detective's desk. Luckily, he had been able to keep an eye on them the whole time he had been questioned about what had happened that day.

"Higashikata," the detective called, immediately catching the officer's attention. "We've finished up here."

Kakyoin wasted no time; as soon as he heard that the detective had finished questioning Hol Horse, he threw himself off of the chair he and Polnareff had been sharing. The speed his small legs were able to hit was quite amazing, considering how small he truly was. In a matter of seconds, he had crossed the moderately sized station and was hugging Hol Horse's legs.

"Are you okay? Are we in trouble? Are you going to get arrested?"

Hol Horse would be lying if he tried to say that his heart _didn't_ lift at the worry Kakyoin was readily showing for him.

He was a damned fool. Had he really let his greatest enemies sneak their way into his heart?

"Everything's fine, Kakyoin." he patted pink locks softly, all the while he watched as the other children walked up to him, although Polnareff's own pace was quicker than the rest's. "I'm alright. We're not in trouble. Nobody's getting arrested. We're actually going to be leaving now."

Once the rest of the children reached him, he turned to the detective that had conducted the line of questioning. "We'll be heading out now."

"Of course. And, once again, I am sorry this happened to you in the midst of what was supposed to be happy time for your family." with a light bow, the man made a point of showing how genuine his words were.

Hol Horse nodded, smiled softly, and finally turned towards the rest of the children. "Let's head on out now, huh?"

The police officer called Higashikata waved softly at him, then informed him, "I will be escorting you into town. Detective Kunimura will be driving you."

~/~

Life sure was a funny thing. One minute, it was getting overly complicated because of possible danger. Now it was getting out of said complicated reality because of what Hol Horse gladly called a stroke of good luck.

"I am so sorry to hear that the Morioh Grand Hotel didn't work out for you. And my house is kind of small, so accommodations will be slightly cramped, but it's the least I can do for a man that helped save my father's life."

Tomoko Higashikata was the daughter of the police officer that had stayed with the kids in the police station. She was a single mother that lived with her father in a comfortably modest house in the suburbs of Morioh. And she was now willing to house him and the kids for a day or two until they were able to get on a flight and finally head over to Nagoya- and Jotaro's house to drop him and his grandfather off.

Because that was still Hol Horse's plan of action. Even if he couldn't let go of all the children, he knew for a fact that Jotaro would be taken in and taken care of with his real family. And that was one less kid to worry about.

It was a shame that Officer Higashikata was now in the hospital because of the car crash he wound up in. But it seems that it had been the right thing to do to force Detective Kunimura to stop and allow him to help the policeman before the ambulance arrived. Because now they had a place to stay in and he didn't have to pay anything other than the food they needed to cook.

Even though he was a very bad man, it was a good thing he knew how to act like a good person.

"Believe me, anything's better than having to pay the highest price for a last minute booking at the other hotels in the area." he stepped through the threshold into the Higashikata home, quickly looking over the cozy decoration style. "Or possibly exposing my innocent sons to the horrors of the seedier motels."

"Young minds must be protected at all costs, I agree." Tomoko nodded with a small smile playing at her lips, making her way towards the inside of the house, towards a hall that led deeper within. "I'm going to check up on my own son for a quick moment. Please, make yourself at home."

Once she was gone, Hol Horse turned around to make sure that all of his own charges were inside of the Higashikata home. Four of the children were glancing around in curiosity at their newest surrounding, probably taking in every little detail they could find. It wasn't really all that surprising to see that Jotaro was the only one firmly glaring ahead, rather than marveling at everything that surrounded him.

He closed the door behind them and then softly pushed Polnareff and Kakyoin in the direction of the warm couches in the living room area, silently prompting them to go and sit over there. The youngest kids went without needing any further nudging, although Joseph and Avdol continued standing, looking around the home. Jotaro mechanically made his way to the couch, sitting on the left edge of it, far from the rest of the children.

But the boy now glared over at Hol Horse... and, honestly, Hol Horse wasn't surprised by this. This Jotaro kid knew too much. Even if he was still young, he'd clearly lived through some things to know that trust shouldn't be thrown around so carelessly.

Taking off his hat, Hol Horse walked towards the living room and set himself down on the plush recliner that was crooning to him.

He was out like a light the moment his head met with the headrest of the recliner.

* * *

Hol Horse had murdered someone to ensure they would be able to continue on their way to Nagoya. The gunshot had been muffled and he believed that none of his companions knew what that sound had been. But he knew.

He did not know how Hol Horse had managed to fabricate a believable crime scene in less than two minutes. Just like he did not know what kind of story he wanted the police to believe.

There were many things he did not know when it came to the man Hol Horse was. Just like there were many things he could not understand.

At this point, it was as if Hol Horse was an incomplete puzzle; he was missing too many pieces to properly solve the mystery this man was.

And Jotaro did _not_ like that.

Polnareff and Kakyoin were whispering with each other, conspiring about turning on the television in front of the couch. They were talking about how Hol Horse was asleep; he wouldn't be stopping them. And the likes of Avdol and Joseph were probably not going to stop them- the youngest kids knew that they had those two wrapped around their little fingers, in a way. Their only true problem was Jotaro.

_Good grief_.

With a frown, Jotaro looked in the direction of the last two boys in their group. Joseph was making his way towards the kitchen, glaring at the walls and floor and everything in between- he honestly believed that every single thing that had happened to them had to be connected to a supposed Robert O. Speedwagon in some manner and he was probably looking for proof of this connection.

Avdol was following him, probably to make sure he didn't end up breaking anything in a house that belonged to none of them.

They were acting like children... they were actually children.

Turning back to the slumbering Hol Horse, Jotaro's face morphed into yet another distrusting glare.

Hol Horse was a bad man.

_What was he playing at protecting and taking care of them?_

"Come on, Josuke." Tomoko's melodic voice echoed through the hallway, signaling her return to the main area of her house. "Come meet some new friends."

The blubbering of a baby much too young to be of any danger followed after her words and soon the young woman appeared, a bundle of cloth and dark hair held tightly in her arms.

"Oh, your father's asleep." Tomoko seemed somewhat disappointed to find Hol Horse snoring as loud as a chainsaw, but she soon smiled. "Honestly, my son wears _me_ out. And he's just one. I don't know what I'd do if I was taking care of _five_ boys."

With these words of sympathy Jotaro knew Hol Horse did not deserve, Tomoko Higashikata walked into the living room and smiled at him, Kakyoin, and Polnareff. "Is it okay if I leave Josuke in his playpen here with you? You can turn on the TV- I'll be in the kitchen preparing a meal for all of us."

"It's a plan!" Polnareff, of course, jumped on a course that allowed him to turn on the TV he had been intrigued by as soon as he had entered the living room.

Tomoko smiled and left her baby in the playpen area that was set up to the right of the couch, far from the recliner Hol Horse had claimed for himself. And she soon walked away, beginning a conversation with Joseph and Avdol when she found them in the area of the kitchen.

Jotaro sighed all the while the TV was turned on by Kakyoin, immediately beginning to annoy him with its much too colorful images and booming shouts.

As Kakyoin squealed about how cool some superhero on TV was, Jotaro looked over at the baby on the ground. And was immediately flabbergasted to find the beginning of a stand, silver and pink, emanating from him. It formed towards his right and wound up sitting on a bear plush toy the child had beside him. It seemed humanoid, with arms, torso, legs, and a head- its skin pink and some bracelet and necklace looking things colored silver on top of the pink skin.

The baby blubbered at the stand, who blubbered back.

They were both babies. But there was no mistaking it, this child had a stand.

Josuke was Tomoko Higashikata's son. His name was Josuke Higashikata.

Jotaro's eyes widened in pure surprise at the revelation.

He hoped this wasn't _another JoJo._

_Good grief._

~..~..~

Hope you enjoyed! Please review! And please stay safe!


	8. Chapter 8

After a good night's sleep and a hearty breakfast, Hol Horse felt like he was almost ready to take on the day.

Tomoko was more than happy to take care of the kids and allow him a moment to step out of the house and go about the business he supposedly needed to complete before they could set off for the airport yet again.

Hol Horse didn't feel even the slightest bit guilty over having left the children with the woman even though there was no true reason for him doing so. He had just wanted a spell of alone time; no crime in that. And those kids, while he was (regretfully) beginning to care about them, were not really an integral part of the alone time he so craved.

Pulling the lit cigarette away from his lips, Hol Horse rejoiced in the peace that wandering the town of Morioh brought to him. Now that he finally had a moment to himself, he was able to take stock of his mind, body, and the damage he had caused to both by having decided to grow a heart at the worst moment possible.

He was tired; more tired than he'd been in what felt like ages. He hadn't felt this bone tired since... he didn't want to think about. It had been much too long since he had last thought about such a thing and he refused to open that particular can of worms.

Sighing softly, Hol Horse pulled his wallet out of his pants and counted up the money he had physically available. He frowned softly at the sight of it; even though it was more than enough for him to survive off of, it wasn't nearly enough for the long trip they were going to be taking to return Jotaro to his family. Hell, they would be lucky if they didn't completely run out of money by just taking the plane to Nagoya and eating a meal.

He needed to find money, and fast.

But he couldn't go back to his old ways of making quick cash... at least, not here. A small town like Morioh didn't have a large pool of criminality and the recent murder in the Morioh Grand Hotel more than made up the acceptable bracket of 'unexpected crime'. Even though he could ask Tomoko to help him out a little and look after the kids for just one more day, he couldn't take on a job here if he didn't want to draw further scrutiny from the police onto the small town.

The murder of a foreigner was already more than odd enough for a place like this. Anything else and people would begin to get scared. And Hol Horse wasn't in the business of scaring regular folk, even if it would offer him the kind of cash he desperately needed right now.

The walls around him were tall and white. The urbanization he was wandering around was a simple one that looked like every other urbanization one would find around Japan. There was nothing that really stuck out about the area... and that was probably the reason why it had been so easy for him to get lost within this bland maze. A few wrong turns and one lit cigarette truly put into perspective just how easy it was for Hol Horse to get lost now that his mind had been allowed a break.

Now that he had managed to get some peace and quiet to himself, though, he knew that he should be returning to the children. They still needed to get to Jotaro's home and drop the kid off with his proper parents.

But... well, it would be hard to return to the children if he couldn't navigate his way out of this suburbian labyrinth.

Inhaling deeply; all the while luxuriating the smoke that filled his lungs and enacted their damage on his lungs; Hol Horse took one look around the street he was currently standing on to begin to formulate a way out of the area. He was lucky enough to see a car leaving a house and heading down the street in the direction of his right; so he decided to try and his luck and begin heading down that way.

He managed to walk down the street, turn a corner, and walk down another street before he ran into any kind of complication. And, really, from what he could see, this was the kind of complication that he could have easily ignored.

A teenage male was creeping down the street, seemingly following a pink haired female teen that seemed to be none the wiser. Honestly, if it hadn't been for the fact that the boy was wearing gloves, Hol Horse would have stricken the scene down as a completely inane one born from teenage stupidity and hopeless love turning into stalking tendencies.

But the gloves and the hood pulled low over his face... well, they struck Hol Horse as odd.

So he began to follow the duo with his eyes, keeping to himself on the other side of the street and acting the part of the lost tourist he actually was.

The girl went into her home and seemed to be completely unaware about the human that had been following her. Hol Horse frowned at this, but could have written it off as completely normal... until he saw the boy begin to make his way into the backyard of the house.

His legs were moving before his brain had truly caught up with his train of thought. He hastily made his way down unassuming sidewalks, crossed a perfectly paved road, and lumbered his way through a pristinely kept garden as he followed the teenage boy. And when he came to the back of the house, it was to find that the boy had begun to climb up the scaffolding on the side of the house.

With two long strides the cowboy was able to grab a firm hold of the teenager's black jacket and pulled him down and back to the ground. The kid let out a squawk of complete surprise as he tumbled onto the ground below, falling in a mess of limbs and regret.

A knife tumbled out of the pocket of his jacket and slid beside Hol Horse's foot. Immediately, the man's mood shifted from curiosity tinged with some worry to flat out pissed off.

If there was one thing Hol Horse couldn't stand in the world, it was a man hurting a woman. He may have questionable morals and a kill list a mile long, but he at least knew where he drew the line!

"Ow." the would-be criminal murmured as he began to collect himself and sit up on the ground, and Hol Horse shook his head down at the idiot.

Crouching down so his eyes were on the same level as the teenager's, Hol Horse wasted no time in making his intentions clear. "Think you're a big feller with that knife of yours?"

There was a gasp of surprise from the boy's lips, then his bright, _cold_ blue eyes landed on Hol Horse, widening in immediate realization. All the while, Hol Horse called Emperor into his hand; those eyes didn't belong to a regular human being. Those were the cold eyes of someone with little to no empathy and complete determination to see their goals through.

One less person like this surely wouldn't hurt the world in any way. Hell, it may even help the world.

Seeing how the knife was trapped firmly beneath Hol Horse's foot, the teenager was not able to grab it and try to defend himself with it. Because of this, Hol Horse witnessed something about the boy that stopped him from shooting him down right then and there.

Another stand user? _In this regular little town_?

Huh.

The stand wasn't as small as the Joestar Crew's had become because of the loss of their years. But it certainly wasn't the stand of a fully formed adult- much like the teenager, it was lanky, shorter than Hol Horse, and seemed more terrified than prepared to protect its user. Its face was catlike and its skin was silver. Hol Horse noted with some chagrin that it too wore gloves.

"Well... ain't that a surprise..." he murmured to himself, grabbing the lit cigarette from his lips with his left hand to toss it onto the ground and stomp it out under his left foot. "A stand user, huh?"

"A what user? Who are you? Why are you-"

Cocking Emperor proved to be a rather successful tactic to quiet the teenager's questions. His wide eyes now filled with the terrible realization of his own mortality... and Hol Horse's brain supplied him with a harebrained scheme so stupid it actually rivaled 'save the Joestars' for the illustrious spot of 'dumbest plan Hol Horse had ever come up with'.

"Now, I'm going to give you one chance to answer me honestly." Hol Horse told the teen, his voice clear and firm. "I'll know if you're lying, so don't try anything stupid, y'hear." he wouldn't really know, but he could work out any difficulties that arose from that fact later on. "If I don't like your honest answer, though, there ain't a need to worry; you won't be bothered by the burden of breathing, after all."

The teen's already pale skin became ghostly.

_Good_.

Trash like him... prepared to hurt a young girl... the reason behind it certainly didn't matter; in Hol Horse's mind, there was no good enough reason in the world to _ambush_ a woman.

"Is this the first time you do this?"

There was a small voice in the back of his head screaming at him that this was an incredibly dumb thing he was proposing on doing. But midway through waiting for the kid's answer, that voice just about shut itself up. Possibly, it decided that Hol Horse just wasn't worth the effort; the man's survival instincts were shot after years of overuse and now his impulsivity and lack of reason were taking over the decision making process.

He needed money quick, after all. And this little bastard certainly seemed to lack any scruples when it came to getting his hands dirty.

"Y-yes..." the answer was whispered, caught somewhere between regret and pure disdain. If Hol Horse had to guess, the regret wasn't for his actions. Instead, he had heard such a sound because the teenager was regretting have been caught by someone prepared to stop him and his crime.

Hol Horse smirked.

He wasn't sure he was much of an idiot anymore; it would be much more appropriate to call himself an _entrepeneur_. But he knew he could use this.

* * *

"Boys, this is Yoshikage Kira. He'll be traveling with us from now on. He's under strict probation by me, though, so if you see him acting up or being suspicious in _any way_, you need to tell me immediately."

At the airport, the children met the teenager he had strong-armed into helping him. And they stared at him with varied looks that ranged from confusion all the way distrust. But, really, it wasn't a surprise to see that Jotaro's face was scowling yet again.

The blonde teenager raised his hand to give a halfhearted greeting that was more 'irritated teenager' than 'repentant criminal one misstep away from death'. But Hol Horse smiled softly at the children, trying to reassure them about the safety they were in even with the newcomer, before he turned to the kid to ask him if he had completed the first task he had been set to do.

With a heavy sigh, Kira nodded and pulled out the tickets for the plane they would be taking. Hol Horse nodded and extended his arm, silently telling the kid to hand the papers over. He did so with a barely concealed grumble that made Hol Horse send him a cold glare to remind him of the danger he was in.

The response was immediate and Kira froze, prompting the kids to stare at him in further confusion.

"Um, Yoshikage-senpai, are you alright?" Kakyoin questioned softly; and hotdamn didn't that sound adorable coming from the child?

It wasn't a surprise to hear Kakyoin being so respectful and caring towards the newest addition of their little group. Hell, up until this point, the kids had been lucky to only be forced to deal with _good _people. The only _technically_ bad people they had come across had been three, and Hol Horse had made sure to steer clear of them before they could do anything to the kids he had essentially adopted.

Kira frowned but nodded stiffly. "I'm fine." he managed to cough out, being smart enough to avoid Hol Horse's eyes and instead stare down at the floor beneath their feet.

Pleased with Kira's behavior, Hol Horse turned a bright smile towards the children. "Well then, let's get going. Nagoya awaits, y'know."

Polnareff and Kakyoin cheered at this, beginning to ask him if they could play the parts of spy partners; apparently, they had enjoyed watching a spy movie last night while he had slept. As he moved in the direction of their terminal, the various bags of the children clacking against him, he couldn't help but chuckle softly at their enthusiasm.

"Hey, Kakyoin, why don't you ask Kira about himself? I'm sure he'll enjoy talking to you." sue him. He liked the kid, but all of his incessant questions were certainly _not_ Hol Horse's favorite characteristic.

With a gasp, Kakyoin turned his attention onto the newcomer and Hol Horse was given a respite of silence in which none of the kids tried to talk to him. Polnareff and Kakyoin began to interrogate a stubborn Kira; Jotaro remained quiet in a way that was completely natural; and Avdol and Joseph shared a hushed conversation behind him.

Hol Horse couldn't help but smirk softly as they walked down the rather empty airport- it did make sense, though, that such a small town wouldn't have too much of a need for air travel.

Things certainly were starting to look up for him. And as soon as he received the new job from his usual contact, Kira would make them quite the pretty penny.

* * *

_"It's a real simple arrangement, kid. You learn my trade, use your devil given inclination towards crime, and bring me money. In exchange for the help, I _won't_ shoot you where you stand."_

His father had once been an avid watcher of western movies. When he had been younger, it had actually been one of the few things he managed to share with his father; his enjoyment of cowboy movies was much smaller than his father's passion, but it still permitted them something to bond over.

Because of this, Kira had believed he knew what was supposed to be a stereotypical cowboy character. A brooding wanderer that lived his whole life wallowing in his own loneliness, the romanticized Hollywood version of a cowboy was straightforward and easy to predict. But that was exactly what cowboys were supposed to be: relics of a bygone era in both history and cinema.

Even though characters like that shouldn't exist in real life, a real life cowboy had aimed an incredibly clunky looking revolver at his face and _threatened with killing him_.

Kira couldn't believe his life... the _first time_ he brought himself to act on his compulsions... _a cowboy found him and kidnapped him._

Getting extorted and blackmailed by the guy, his life threatened without a single hint of hesitation, had helped Kira come to a quick decision. But it wasn't a decision he _actually liked_.

He had a perpetual frown pulling at his lips now. Kira didn't care if Hol Horse didn't like it; he hadn't made a _pleasant disposition_ part of their stupid contract. Even if he didn't like the way he was acting, he couldn't kill Kira for sulking... well, he couldn't kill him _based on the guidelines of the contract_. From what Kira had seen of the man, he certainly had no qualms on killing Kira.

The brunette was staring at him through narrowed eyes that were much too obvious in the way they were attempting to analyze him. Kira did his best to ignore the stare, pushing himself deeper into the airplane seat even as he heard Kakyoin trying to ask him about his favorite subject in school. To his right and across the aisle, he could hear the monster named Hol Horse's heavy snoring.

_He couldn't believe that man_.

But... Kira feared him.

That gun had appeared from thin air and he hadn't _moved an inch_ when he had seen Kira's ultimate defense mechanism. The monster had only called it a _stand and moved on to entrap Kira into becoming his little errand boy_.

Not only could this cold hearted and inhumanly ruthless cowboy wield his gun whenever he wished to, kill someone without blinking an eye, and tell when others were lying, he was also clearly one of the biggest monsters in the _world_. And the idiotic children he was traveling with were clearly ignorant to this fact. He had all of these boys fooled enough to make them actually _like _him. The poor fools.

With a frown, Kira looked through the window to his left and couldn't help but feel his heart tug at the sight of his hometown falling away from him.

He knew right from wrong. He knew what he had wanted to do to Reimi was wrong. But he had been prepared to do everything in his power to cover up his involvement in the crime to make sure he could continue living an unimpressive and _quiet _life. He had prepared himself and everything was perfect!

But Hol Horse had appeared out of nowhere and destroyed all of his plans.

"Hey, Kira, do you want something to drink?" Kakyoin asked as he tugged softly at his sleeve. "Or something to eat? You look like..."

Kira frowned at the way the pink haired child's voice drifted off before he finished his statement. So he turned to his right to look at him, only to find the boy pursing his lips softly. Even though he couldn't have been more than five years old, his eyes were swimming with a depth of emotions much more appropriate in someone much older. "Like what?" he broke his promise to keep quiet, curious and somewhat frazzled by the look in the boy's eyes.

Just who in the world was this boy to act so calmly around a monster like Hol Horse?

"Like you need a distraction." the boy murmured, then smiled. "I know that look. I used to wear it a lot."

The dark haired boy sat beside Kakyoin grunted softly and Kira looked at him... and immediately felt his blood run cold. The glare on that kid's face _should_ _not _have been capable of looking so dangerous and cold.

"I'm fine."

He turned back to his window and made a point of wanting to be left alone by shifting his body so he was pressed as humanly possible to the wall of the plane. Luckily enough, he was left to his own devices after that.

Although, he certainly didn't miss the way Kakyoin kept his tray pulled down during the rest of the flight; with a bottle of water and a peanut butter and jelly sandwich occupying it well after he and the other boy had finished their individual meals.

~..~..~

If everything works out well and my mind doesn't supply me with too many insane ideas, I reckon this is around the halfway point for the story! Trust me, that's a huge accomplishment for me. I've got more than enough unfinished stories to attest to this fact.

I'm messing up the timeline on purpose here because I can. For this fic, Kira already has Killer Queen by the time he goes to kill Reimi. But he chose to use a knife like in canon because he wanted his first experience to be an experimental one; as serial killers tend to do with their first kills. A knife is much more personal and he wanted to find out if he wanted that kind of personal confrontation during a kill before contemplating any further the use of his 'ultimate defense mechanism'.

Also, the Emperor tarot card symbolizes order and control. So I imagine that Hol Horse is a master manipulator that can take control of any situation as long as he keeps a level enough head. But then when he's at a complete loss and overwhelmed by emotions, he just... wings it... and acts dumb... and somehow makes it out okay... So... accept my headcannon! Accept it!

Please review and let me know your thoughts! Stay safe out there too!


	9. Chapter 9

"Alright, boy, I've got the job you're going to set out on."

Kira frowned at him with a glare that was supposed to show off how much disdain he held for the cowboy. But Hol Horse had dealt with Jotaro's death glare for what felt like a lifetime now (which was more like two weeks, if he were being realistic and accurate). The glare the blonde was giving him seemed like absolute child's play when compared to Kujo's.

The rest of the children were fast asleep; just as Hol Horse had planned. He wouldn't have to worry about any of them overhearing what he would be telling the teenager he had forced into accompanying their ragtag group.

They had gotten lucky that afternoon. There had been no complications to this airplane trip;_ thankfully enough_; and because of that they had arrived at a pretty good time to their initial destination. But because Hol Horse was currently running out of money, they had not been able to head out to Jotaro's house to deliver the child to his biological family. Instead, they had shacked up in a ryokan by the outskirts of the Minato ward they had landed in.

This particular ryokan was somewhat expensive- especially when Hol Horse was aware of a much cheaper option around thirty minutes away in a cab. But this place offered more privacy than other nearby establishments and offered a much calmer atmosphere than more westernized hotels in the area.

(There was also the growing suspicion that he should stay far away from more modern technology when it came to staying in an area for a prolonged amount of time. He did not know how in the world D'Arby Jr. had found them, but he needed to be even more careful than he had previously been. And the plane that had left them in Morioh… he couldn't quite put his finger on it, but he knew something had been up with the sudden landing too.)

"What am I supposed to be doing?" the teenager asked as he walked towards the small table Hol Horse was set up around.

One good thing about having recruited this would-be criminal was that he didn't have to hold back on the kind of missions he would be sending the kid on. If the little sonnuvabitch was prepared to hurt an innocent woman, then he certainly could not try to convince Hol Horse he had some kind of moral hang-up about illegal activities. So Hol Horse found no reason to be too careful about the missions he picked for him to go on.

Although, considering how this would be the kid's first time _being successful_ at committing crime, the man had decided to go easy on him. So the kid would be going on a simple courier mission- he just had to take a package they would be receiving at the door and then he'd have to take it to a destination that was an hour's walk away.

It was an easy job that wouldn't require him to do anything too out of this world- he just needed to prove that he was competent enough to get from Point A to Point B and hand a package off to the correct person.

"Sit down and keep hushed. I need these kids to sleep as much as possible." he instructed with little bite behind his words. Once Kira had sat down opposite him, Hol Horse pointed at the map he had acquired from the front desk, beginning to explain the job to the kid. Once he had done that, he stressed the importance of being prudent and _keeping privacy_ while doing the courier business- this particular contractor was very insistent on wanting his business to remain out of the public eye.

Without any pictures or any of the like, it wouldn't be easy for Kira to identify the man he was supposed to hand the package over to. But Hol Horse believed that the description he had been given was enough for the kid to work out a good enough image of his ugly face; that was the middle man's way to summarize the guy's looks, not Hol Horse's own interpretation.

"You got all that?" he asked the kid once he had finished relaying all of the important information.

The kid was frowning down at the map that had been rolled out over the table- displeasure was more than clear on his features. But soon he nodded tensely and asked, "I'm supposed to leave now, right?"

"That's right. He wants the package before midnight and you've got an hour's walk ahead of you."

Kira huffed loudly. And if Hol Horse hadn't found him prepared to hurt an innocent little lady, he may have found it within himself to take some pity on the kid and emphasize within his own mind that this was a _teenager_.

But this kid had tried to hurt an innocent little lady and Hol Horse had no empathy to give to would be woman killers. The kid was just lucky he had caught him _before_ he had committed the act. If he had no empathy for would be attackers, he had an absolute _loathing_ for those that had gone through with their heinous acts against defenseless females.

Because let's be honest here; most of the men that targeted women to hurt were cowardly enough to go for the women they knew wouldn't be capable of defending themselves enough to fight them off and possibly win.

_Disgusting_.

"Get the package from here to the man called Masatake." Kira summarized, then breathed out in clear regret, "Yeah. I can handle that."

A few seconds of tense silence passed between them before they heard three rapid knocks on the door; that was the signal for the arrival of the package Kira would be delivering.

"Y'know what to do kid." Hol Horse spoke as he sat up from the table, crossing his arms over his broad chest as he leveled the teenager with a cold glare. "Move fast, keep your head down, and don't do anything that'll make me have to blow your brains out of that skull of yours."

The teen winced but nodded quietly. He then scurried away from Hol Horse, hurriedly putting on his shoes in front of the door before he opened it, bent down to grab the gift-wrapped box that had been left in front of the door, and left without bothering to speak any further with Hol Horse.

Once the door had closed behind him, Hol Horse remained standing in silence for a few seconds, glaring at the spot where the teenager had previously been. The kid was smart. Cautious, too. He knew how to be private and keep himself from drawing too much attention to himself. If he had willed it, he would have been able to go about living a normal life for the rest of his days, even with the stand he had.

How far would he have managed to get if Hol Horse hadn't caught him in the middle of a clearly premeditated attack?

Sighing softly, the cowboy shook his head and made his way towards the door, locking it to ensure some semblance of privacy for him and the kids. After he had done this, he settled himself back on his knees so he could use the telephone that he had placed on top of the table. This area was supposed to be for mealtimes and the telephone had been set up on a dresser near to the futons where the children were sleeping- but Hol Horse had moved it away from them to make sure he didn't accidentally wake them up if the telephone rang during the night.

He quickly dialed the number of his contact and waited patiently for the line to connect. Once it had, no one on the other side greeted him. This didn't surprise him in any way; instead he just informed the listener, "The present is on the way. Hope y'all enjoy yourselves a happy birthday."

Hanging up without waiting for an answer, the blonde man breathed out heavily and closed his eyes. His hands were beginning to shake ever so slightly- it had been a while since had last indulged with a cigarette.

Jobs for the yakuza were always some he didn't particular enjoy. Killing people was easy; just like kidnapping them. But Hol Horse had always felt uneasy about their approach towards the drug and extorsion business. It wasn't that he was against what they did; it was more like he just did not want to take part in any of it. But the job he had been offered was quick and the pay was handsome. That money would be enough to get them to Jotaro's house without any further complications, which allowed Hol Horse a bit more time to find another job to send Kira on in the dead of night.

The tatami under him was bothering him a little- but it was mostly because he had never found any enjoyment from this specific Japanese custom. What was so bad about regular old wooden floors?

Looking over the futons where the kids were currently resting, Hol Horse found that he was able to breathe a bit easier when he was able to see that all of them were fast asleep and comfortable. Joseph had somehow managed to kick off the sheets that had previously been surrounding his body and Polnareff, in an inhuman feat that absolutely did _not_ surprise Hol Horse, was now resting with his head on top of Avdol's chest with only the tips of his feet resting on his own futon. The rest had been able to remain within their respective areas and beneath their sheets, luckily enough.

The more time he spent with these the children... the harder it was to see them as the mortal danger the Joestar Crew posed for him. These kids were idiotic, impulsive, irritating, and _innocent_.

Aside from that, most of them also had access to their own stands. Did Jotaro have his stand yet? From intel he had been given before Alessi had hit these guys with his stand, he knew that the Joestars hadn't had access to their stands when they had been kids. But now that they were de-aged, had they lost those stands? Or... did they have them but were keeping them a secret from him?

He had seen Polnareff's stand with his own eyes. Kakyoin and Avdol had not yet found a reason to show off their own stands- because they weren't as flashy as the frenchboy. But they had spoken about their own 'protectors' at some point or another. Joseph and Jotaro, on the other hand...

Hol Horse closed his eyes and shook his head as he stood up from the table and turned off the lamp to the edge of it. These were _kids_. Their minds had been de-aged along with their bodies. If they hadn't talked about their stands or used them in any way, it probably meant that they did not _have them_. So he shouldn't allow his paranoia to begin consuming him all over again. At least, he couldn't allow that paranoia to consume him when it came to the _kids_. He still had Dio's loyal followers to worry about, after all.

Now that he thought about that... he needed to get serious about contingency plans for when the rest of Dio's followers inevitably tracked them down.

"How many of them is the guy willing to send now that D'Arby Jr.'s dead?" he wondered aloud, making his way towards the futon he had set out for himself. He was tired. But would he be able to sleep?

After a few minutes spent with his eyes closed but his mind turning with infinite worries, he was able to figure out that the answer to such a question was a regretful _no_.

Standing up, Hol Horse made his way back to the table, turned the light back on, and began to trace out possible routes he could take through less traveled and known areas of the prefecture to remain as under the radar as was humanly possible for a man traveling with five kids and one reluctant teenager.

* * *

The money for a job well done was left with them beside the breakfast the ryokan left for them early in the morning. Hol Horse immediately pocketed it without letting any of the kids have the chance to even look at the envelope- the last thing he needed was for them to begin to wonder why such a thing had been left for them.

At five past midnight, he had received a call where his contact let him know that the birthday gift had arrived unharmed and intact. Around an hour later, Kira had returned to their room, looking almost the same way he had looked when he had left- reluctant and petty, but unharmed and unfazed. He had thrown himself onto his futon to fall asleep without telling the cowboy a single word.

Hol Horse had not managed to sleep during the whole night. But he _did_ have five different plans they could utilize to reach Jotaro's home now that they had the money from the job. And this wasn't the first time he would have to soldier on without having gotten a wink of sleep; in his line of duty, these kids of nights were the norm and he would be horrible at this particular employment if he couldn't deal with them.

Even with all of the burning hatred he had for Yoshikage Kira and for what the kid had been planning to do... he could concede that the kid had done a good job. And he hadn't tried to run away- the time frame had been near perfect, after all, which meant he hadn't tried to deviate too much, if at all.

Because of this, Hol Horse allowed himself to whisper to the kid that he had done a good job when he woke up. Luckily, at that time the kids that were awake had been eagerly chattering about going to the common bathing area to wash up, so Hol Horse had been able to say such a thing to the teen without being overheard.

And wasn't that a sight? Kira actually _stared_ at him with widened eyes, as if absolutely taken aback by the non-angered words of possible encouragement from him. Probably, he had been too shocked to give him a proper glare.

"Breakfast!" Cried Polnareff in excitement when he caught sight of the tray Hol Horse was carrying over to the table.

Because there were _so many_ of them, the ryokan staff had piled up their meals within Styrofoam containers and piled them up on top of the wooden tray. Hol Horse had no idea what was inside and he highly doubted he'd know the proper name of anything that would be inside, but his stomach could attest that it would probably be delicious if his nose was not deceiving him.

"Gather round, kids." he called for them, then noted how Joseph was still asleep. "Avdol, do me a favor and wake that one up. We've got to get a move on if we want to reach Jotaro's house before the day ends."

As he set the tray down on the table- which he had cleared of all papers when the sun had begun to rise- he heard a soft hum from his right. And when he managed to look in that direction, he found Jotaro looking at him with eyes that _weren't absolutely freezing_.

Hol Horse blinked at him.

Jotaro quickly frowned and began to glare... but there wasn't the same amount of hatred within the look as there had been before... but Hol Horse struck that down as him probably getting used to the kid's powerful death glare.

"We'll get to my mom today?" the kid asked as Kakyoin and Polnareff plopped down on the tatami flooring around the table, quick to make sure they would be the first to get to eat. Jotaro didn't move to come anywhere near.

Hol Horse handed one container to each of the youngest kids of the group as he nodded, "If everything works out fine, yeah. It's far from here, though, so we should get a move on if we want to get there 'fore nighttime."

Jotaro grunted and gave him one stiff nod before he walked towards the table to snatch one container from the tray. Then he moved back to the spot he had brooding in previously, towards Hol Horse's right and against the wall.

Kid was an unrepentant loner, huh?

"Father... I do not think Joseph wants to get up."

These kids were incredibly smart. They even understood they needed to maintain their cover even when they weren't in the public eye.

Hol Horse sighed but stood up to head towards Avdol and Joseph so he could poke the kid awake.

He didn't miss the way Kira skulked towards the food when he believed his back was turned.

* * *

He wasn't sure exactly _what_ Yoshikage Kira was doing with their fake family... but he believed it had something to do with Robert's mission to get the Jotaro boy back to his family.

With all of the money had at his disposal, along with the skills he clearly possessed of survival, it was a wonder why he believed he would need some kind of aid to accomplish his goal. _But_, Joseph could understand that taking care of so many children was probably more taxing than the man had previously thought. So it would make sense if he had asked his associates for help. And a teenage babysitter wasn't weird in any way- even though those were usually female.

Although...

Joseph's eyes were narrowed as he followed Yoshikage Kira's form duck into the fast food restaurant with a clearly displeased frown marring his face. Then he turned his sight onto Robert/Hol Horse/Hal Howard/Father... the man had heavy bags under eyes that were incredibly focused on the marked map he was looking over.

Yoshikage Kira didn't seem too happy about being here. Which meant that either he wasn't a very professional associate _or_ his cover story was that he _wasn't_ supposed to look as if he was eager to be with them.

_Odd_.

Everything about this man was odd, honestly. But it was a mystery Joseph was eager to solve.

Especially now that he knew that he had sent Kira out on some kind of errand last night... even though he hadn't been able to hear the whole conversation... _damn his childish need for sleep!_ Even though he had managed to hear the details of Kira having to take a package somewhere, he hadn't been able to hear everything.

"Please, Polnareff, do not shout so much. I Spy may be stimulating, but there is no need to get so worked up when you lose."

Ever since they had started driving in the rented van, most of them had busied themselves by playing I Spy. Jotaro and Kira were the only sourpusses that outright refused to play. Joseph only gave his input, though, when he believed that he was without a doubt correct about the guess he was giving.

This had been going on for a few hours... honestly, Joseph was bored of the game. But somehow Kakyoin and Polnareff were still incredibly intrigued in the game. Avdol had been relegated to the post of referee because of the arguments those two would get into about possible cheating tactics.

"I know! But Kakyoin's lying! I don't see no one with any kind of manga out here!"

It was impossible to miss how Robert Speedwagon's body immediately stiffened upon hearing such a thing.

Joseph couldn't help but wonder if those two brats had accidentally found a threat to them.

"That kid! The one next to the big guy with the huge hat! They're eating inside." Kakyoin huffed and when Joseph turned to look in the direction the kid was pointing at, he indeed found two people fitting such particular descriptions.

Heh... that hat was funny because it was so big.

"What?" Robert gasped suddenly, a frenzied look coming over his eyes as he followed Kakyoin's finger. "Shit!" he cursed, even though he didn't explain any further.

Kira stepped out of the eatery at that specific moment with two large bags filled with the food they had asked for and... Joseph was thrown for a complete loop as Jotaro's heavy body crashed into him; all the while his seatbelt tightened across his body.

Without any kind of warning, Robert had stepped on the gas and roared up to the teenager, cutting off a few cars that were both exiting and entering the parking lot for the food fast place. Kira jumped back in fright at the sudden appearance of the car, but was not allowed a second to grasp the situation: Robert was yelling at him to get back in the car as well as the throwing the door open before he was given such a chance.

Kira just about threw himself inside the car and Robert speeded out of the parking without bothering to wait for the teen to have closed the door; and now Joseph found himself sliding into Jotaro, crashing against him once again.

"Ow!" Kakyoin and Polnareff chorused, all the while Joseph tried to peel himself away from the glaring boy to his left.

"Sorry." the man mumbled unapologetically, "We're on a tight time frame."

Joseph frowned.

Tight time frame his butt. He was running away from those two Kakyoin and Polnareff had spotted.

_Mysterious indeed_.

~..~..~

Please review! And please try your best to remain safe.


	10. Chapter 10

What were the Oingo-Boingo Brothers doing all the way in Nagoya?

Hol Horse had to resist the urge to smack the sides of the steering wheel in frustration- he didn't want to scare the kids and doing something so physical would tip them off to something being off. So he settled for tightening his grip on the wheel as he just barely stopped himself from grinding his teeth together. In the passenger's seat, he was able to see the slightest movement. So he looked out the corner of his eyes for just a second and found Kira moving to hand over the food to the children behind him.

Well, at least the teenager was starting to get used to them. He hadn't even had to ask him to hand out food.

Turning his eyes back onto the road, Hol Horse was able to continue within his thoughts. He knew that Kira was now taking his role within their made-up family seriously. And he also seemed to be understanding that the health and safety of the boys was the most important thing to Hol Horse.

Even with all of the worries that were currently consuming him at the forefront of his mind, Hol Horse was somewhat relieved to see that Kira was adapting to his new life pretty well.

The kid may have been despicable, but at least he was smart.

Now that they were driving down the streets of Nagoya, just barely below the speed limits, Hol Horse was beginning to doubt the validity of his plan. Until now they had run into D'Arby Jr. and the Oingo-Boing Brothers in Japan. Avoiding Mariah and Alessi had been only natural- considering how it wasn't too big an impossibility to have run into them while they had still been in Cairo. But they were now in Japan. And they were running into more of Dio's followers now.

They must be following them. Hol Horse didn't know exactly how... but he knew that it wasn't too much of a stretch for them to know that they should search for him and the kids in Japan. With a simple process of deduction, they would be able to guess at Hol Horse's initial plan. Jotaro was one of the few people that still had parents that were living. So it would only be natural for them to assume that Hol Horse would try to dump one of the charges off on the still living mother.

What if they were waiting for them at Jotaro's home? An ambush would be a pretty smart way to get them all and finally complete the main mission Dio had assigned all of his followers. If they were waiting for them... then Hol Horse would be walking right into a trap.

He breathed in deeply in an attempt to calm his quickly fraying nerves. He hadn't gotten enough sleep and that fact was beginning to catch up with him with its terrible consequences. He was beginning to overthink- and overthinking always led him to worry too much.

Jotaro really wanted to see his mother though... and he didn't want to chance pissing the boy off now that his glares were finally getting less powerful.

_Dammit_.

He couldn't have Jotaro turning on him now that they were getting to a point that the kid didn't seem to absolutely loath him.

But if they stumbled into an ambush just because he wanted to keep Jotaro pleased...

That wouldn't do.

But he couldn't have Jotaro getting pissed off...

Sighing softly, Hol Horse moved to change the radio station. The overly peppy music that was playing wasn't something he was particularly feeling at the moment. So he fiddled with the controls as he drove down the highway, eventually ending up on a station that was playing some Japanese rock that sounded not as happy or peppy as the rest of the stations he had ventured through.

Chancing one look over at Jotaro in the farthest seat through the rearview mirror, Hol Horse found the boy staring out the window. Unlike all the other times he had looked at the kid without him knowing, Jotaro's face wasn't marred by frown lines. His eyes were wide as they stared out towards the sky... he didn't look absolutely angry anymore and that was striking to the cowboy.

The kid really wanted to see his mom again, didn't he?

Sighing softly, Hol Horse cursed the heart that had decided to begin bleeding because of the young look these people now sported. If only they had remained in their adult states... then killing them off wouldn't have felt so _evil._

"Father, are you alright?" he heard Kakyoin murmur from directly behind him, "You're acting kind of..."

"Weird." Polnareff finished, for the pink haired boy. "Aren't you driving kind of fast?"

Hol Horse blinked at this, then made a point of taking a glance over at the speedometer and smiling softly. Considering how he could have taken the chance to truly break the tension that had fallen over them, he should have tried for a smirk. But he couldn't muster up the cockiness to make such a look with his lips. He just wasn't feeling that much confidence.

"Not at all. We're _right_ on the speed limit, kiddos." and he wasn't exaggerating. They were at the precise speed that he had read as the speed limit on this specific stretch of road. "Let this be a lesson- if there's a speed limit, you should go it to make sure you get to your destination as fast as humanly possible."

From his side he was able to hear a disbelieving scoff from Kira. But he returned his gaze onto the road ahead, mindful of the fact that he was driving rather fast and not all of the cars he was speeding past were completely paying attention to him.

"That's the best way to make sure the police start following you..." the teenager muttered ruefully, only to quickly shake his head and silence himself once again.

"Because you're going so fast we can't play games!" Kakyoin huffed after a few seconds of the radio being the only noise between them. "Maybe slow down a bit?"

"You should be focusing on eating, not playing." Avdol, luckily enough, cut in before Hol Horse found himself having to scramble to find a useful excuse to _not_ slow down that _wasn't _the truth. "You do not want your nuggets to get cold, do you?"

"I guess not..." the boy murmured softly, and Hol Horse had to stop himself from imagining the dejected look of confliction that would be coming over the pink haired kid's face at the moment. What was more important to him at the moment: his food or his fun? Ah... the choices of childhood...

He hadn't gotten to experience to many of those innocent moments...

"We're still heading to my home, right, Hol Horse?"

Bristling ever so slightly at the fact that Jotaro had called him by _his name even though they were supposed to be tryin to lay low_... Hol Horse forced himself to breathe in and out before he said anything too dumb to this specific boy. He was beginning to warm up to him, sure. But that didn't mean that Jotaro liked him enough to not try and murder him with a look if he stepped out line for the kid's liking.

"That we are, Jotaro." Hol Horse mumbled, unfortunately losing any kind of ease he had managed to acquire from having that small exchange with the youngest members of their group. "That we are..." he drifted off, mind drifting back to all of his prior worries.

_What if this was an ambush?_

* * *

He couldn't allow those kids to go into the Kujo household.

More likely than not, Dio's followers had already arrived at the house, killed off any inhabitants, and were just waiting for Hol Horse and his de-aged charges to blindly stumble inside. It would be a bloodbath- an absolute slaughter. And Hol Horse would be the person responsible for walking them all into a massacre he could have avoided if he had chosen to _not_ return to Jotaro to his parents.

Once they reached Jotaro's hometown, Kakyoin and Polnareff asked about the name of the town. They saw a giant rock that marked the entrance into the territory and seemed to be completely taken aback by the oddity of the name.

"What kind of name is Orochiyama?" the silver haired boy questioned as he reached the writing- and had Polnareff learned to read kanji from a young age? Wasn't he supposed to be a Frenchman?

Jotaro grunted, but offered, "Some silly legend about Yamata no Orochi, the yokai. Supposedly fragments of the sword used to kill it are hidden in one of the shrines here."

"What's a Yamata no Orochi?" Kakyoin asked and Hol Horse began to feel his chest tightening as their chatter faded into the background of his mind.

The more time he had spent within his own mind, the more sure he had become of the trap that was waiting for them in Jotaro's childhood home. Because of this, he now was sure that there was no way in the world he should allow the kids to even get _near_ the home. Dio's agents were undoubtedly lurking all around them... for all they knew, some of them already even knew that they had entered the town.

As they drove down the town, Hol Horse noticed what seemed to be a hardware store that was closed up and shuttered. He wasn't sure exactly why it was closed- maybe it was Sunday and the owners didn't work on such a day or maybe it was closed down; he didn't actually care. But he decided that it was about time he pulled Jotaro to the side and explained the danger they were currently in.

Knowing that they all risked dying if they returned to his home would probably be enough to convince the kid he couldn't go back home just yet... maybe Hol Horse wouldn't even have to mention the possibility of his mother already being dead if Jotaro didn't fight him too hard... he could only hope to be so lucky.

He registered soft mumbles of confusion from the kids as he pulled into the parking. But he ignored them as he fully stopped the van, bracing himself emotionally for the conversation he was going to have with Jotaro… of all the kids... _of course it had to be the one that scared him the_ _most_.

"Jotaro. I need to talk to you real quick. Step out for a moment." he called, undoing his seatbelt as he unlocked the doors. Then he turned to Kira, "Lock the doors up once I'm out and try and make sure the kids don't do anything too crazy."

They barely ever acted out, truth be told. But he still felt the need to give the warning because he just didn't know what to expect when it came to the kids. He wanted to believe they weren't capable of anything dangerous, really... but there was still a small voice in the back of his head telling him he needed to be wary and to keep his guard up at all times.

With a frown, Kira nodded once and then began to fiddle with the radio.

Hol Horse stepped out of the car and waited for Jotaro to jump over the seats to follow him. Once they were both out of the van, he motioned for the kid to follow him with his head, walking a some steps away from the vehicle to make sure that they couldn't be overheard by the rest.

"I don't think we can go to your house." he began as he placed his hands on his hips, making sure to look at the asphalt below his feet rather than at the kid he knew would probably become murderous upon hearing this. "There's... some extenuating circumstances..." he breathed out- even though he had thought up of what to say to the kid on the ride over, he was still unsure of what he was supposed to tell a _child_.

He couldn't just tell him that they were being hunted down. That would open up a whole can of worms he didn't want to deal with... Hol Horse sighed and kicked at the asphalt with the heel of his right boot.

"It'd be dangerous-"

"My mother was dying." Jotaro cut off his words forcefully, just about knocking all of the breath out of Hol Horse's lungs with the suddenness and severity of what he had said. "Dio's existence was killing her. I wasn't able to kill Dio. The least you can do is take me back to my home so I can say my final farewell after I failed so horribly..."

Eyes going as wide as was humanly possible for him, Hol Horse lifted his gaze up to the boy and struggled to process the true meaning of what he had just said.

Jotaro… he was talking about Dio as if he knew who he was talking about...

There was no way that these were memories from when he was a kid. Dio had only recently come back to life...

The boy was currently glaring at him, the fire of hatred burning deep in his dark eyes. But that wasn't the only emotion currently feeding such dangerous passion... there was also regret in there...

"Wait a minute, kid..." Hol Horse breathed in, attempting to regain some of his composure. "What're you talking about?"

Jotaro sneered, turning his glare at the ground below them. "I never lost my memories like the others. And I wouldn't have said anything- but you forced my hand. I understand why you don't want to take me home and I would agree if it was anyone other than my mother... but I failed to kill Dio in Egypt. I want to see my mother one last time before she dies, Hol Horse."

Even though the voice that was saying these words was incredibly young, Hol Horse could tell that the depth of the words belonged to someone much older than the physical age Jotaro was supposed to be because of Alessi's stand.

And...

Hol Horse sighed.

This actually explained a lot about the kid that he had previously been confused by. All of the wariness Jotaro had displayed; all of that distrust and hatred; the seeming blasé way he had acclimated to all of the moving without asking any questions... now all of that made sense.

Hol Horse frowned and closed his eyes.

"_Please_." Now the boy's dark eyes looked up at him, his face twisted into a hopeful expression that looked _so hopeful_ it jarred Hol Horse straight out of thinking this was a sixteen year old.

Maybe he had managed to keep his memories from before he had been de-aged by a stand... but this was still a _child_. And this child was currently worried about the wellbeing of his _mother_.

_Damn his bleeding heart_.

* * *

When the door to Jotaro's home swung open, Jotaro seemed absolutely surprised to see his mother... well, at least Avdol assumed the woman to be his mother. They seemed to share a similar enough face structure and the color of their eyes were kind of similar... but nothing about the woman seemed to be too alike to the brooding boy.

Standing on the stoop of the traditional Japanese home, Avdol couldn't help but wonder why the boy seemed so surprised to see his mother. And then, when he took a good look at the widened eyes of the woman and was able to note how her mouth was agape ever so slightly, the young boy was not able to stop himself from wondering why _she_ looked so surprised.

From behind the group of kids he had ushered before him, he heard their adoptive guardian murmur, "I'm sorry to impose at such an importune time, but do you think Jotaro here could see his mother? It's... uh..."

Avdol turned his face around to get a look at Hol Horse, then cocked his head ever so slightly to the side when he noticed the downcast way he was holding himself. His shoulders were stooped, eyes turned to the ground, and his fingers were currently wringing harshly at the rim of his hat. This would be the first time Avdol ever saw Hol Horse acting in such an odd manner.

"Jotaro? Why are you so _small_?" the woman gasped, immediately going to her knees as her hands stuck out to grab the boy by his shoulders. "When you left, you were my brave sixteen year old man!"

Jotaro didn't say anything. Instead he remained quiet- although Avdol had the gnawing suspicion that the silence wasn't from his usual disdain of speaking; he seemed to be absolutely taken aback by seeing his mother.

Why would he be so shocked to see his mother?

Avdol's lips pursed as he exchanged a look with Joseph. From the way the other boy's eyes were narrowed, he too was trying to figure out why the people around them were acting so oddly.

First Hol Horse had pulled Jotaro away for an important conversation which had lasted quite a few minutes. Then the man had given them a big speech about safety, listening to his orders, and being observant before they stepped out of the rented van and walked up to Jotaro's house. And now they were acting... well... _weird_.

"M-mom?" Jotaro's voice sounded as if he were far away from his body.

Maybe he had been expecting someone other than his mom to answer the door?

"Mom?" Hol Horse repeated hoarsely behind them, "But, Jotaro, you said-"

The woman cut Hol Horse off, though, by glancing at him and Joseph. Her eyes, already wide, somehow managed to widen further upon noticing them. "Avdol?" she blinked, then turned to look at Joseph. "D-dad?"

Avdol pursed her lips in confusion. This woman knew her name, even though he knew that he had never seen her before in his life.

And why would she call a child so young 'dad'?

This... didn't make any sense.

Tears began to fill her eyes up, though, and she soon pulled Jotaro in for an incredibly tight hug that made even Avdol's ribs hurt. Jotaro let out a surprised noise- and he must truly be shaken if he allowed such a sound to leave his lips.

"I have no idea what's going on..." the woman murmured, her voice muffled because her face was pressed tightly into Jotaro's shoulder. "But, please, come inside. I'll brew some tea and we can..." she breathed in, stopping for a moment in what sounded to be absolute bewilderment. "Try to make some sense of this, I guess... my Jotaro is a child again..."

Without truly waiting for an answer from Hol Horse, the woman picked Jotaro up with a mighty huff. Jotaro flailed a bit at being grabbed, clearly unaccustomed to being carried anymore at such an age. He hesitated for a few seconds, but he soon wrapped his arms around his mother's neck, hugging her tightly as he nestled his face into her shoulder.

Even with how confused he currently was, Avdol allowed himself a moment to think about how endearing such a sight was... he had not felt the warmth of his mother's embrace in a while... maybe he might be able to convince Hol Horse to give him a hug at some point? That would be nice, even though it was not a direct replacement for his mother's marvelous embraces.

"Well I'll be damned..." he heard Hol Horse mutter softly.

"You heard the woman." Kira grunted, pushing at Polnareff and Kakyoin's shoulders. "I'm hungry."

Avdol himself was beginning to feel a bit peckish, he conceded. It was already nighttime and they had not stopped to eat anything after their rushed exit from the fast food place. Maybe Jotaro's mother would be as kind as Tomoko had been and offer them a delicious dinner.

Some more pan-fried fish would be _great_...

They followed Jotaro's mother as she entered the house, Hol Horse closing the door up after them. But as the kids continued to follow after the woman, Avdol noted that Hol Horse stopped by the door. And when he turned around to ask the man why he was moving so slowly, he found the American cowboy locking up the door with one hand as he peered through the window beside the door. His broad shoulders were tense and it was clear that he was bothered by something.

Avdol scurried after the others quickly, not wanting to get caught staring at Hol Horse with the man in such a state. He valued his privacy, after all. And the least they could do was appear to respect such a thing.

~..~..~..

Hell's yeah! We're getting close to the official ending of the story!

If things work out, the story will be finishing up before we get a second point of view from all the kids. So it's very likely I'll add some one-shots after this storyline has ended that revolve around those characters in their re-aged states and Hol Horse. Because, come on, Hol Horse deserves some love from the Adult Crusaders as well.

Please review and tell me what you think!

And stay safe out there, folks. Just 'cause the times are crazy don't mean you have to be.


	11. Chapter 11

Holly Kujo. That was the name of Jotaro's mother and Joseph's _daughter_.

As the woman flitted about her kitchen preparing the tea she had offered them for the conversation they would be needing to embark on, Hol Horse couldn't help but be _cautiously wary_ of her.

Jotaro had told him that his mother's death was directly tied to Dio's life. The longer Dio lived, the less his mother had to live. She had collapsed due to some weird biological thing Hol Horse had been incapable of wrapping his head around before the Joestars had headed off to Egypt- hell, that had been the reason why they had been working to foil Dio's plans.

So... if Dio's life was supposed to be draining the woman's own... how in the world was she able to flit around the kitchen and tend to the excited children as if she had more energy than a coked up criminal?

While the woman had prepared a quick dinner for the children, Hol Horse had been left to make sure they behaved for the most part in the living room. Sat before a television, Kakyoin and Polnareff were much too distracted to cause any problem. Besides, if Hol Horse was correct, they had gotten so accustomed to traveling from site to site that there really wasn't much room left to astonish them when it came to entering someone's home.

Jotaro had just about refused to leave his mother's side. While she worked in the kitchen, he had stood in the doorway, watching her work with the sharp eyes of a hawk. Everywhere she went, he quickly followed after without even trying to explain to either adult in the house why, exactly, he was acting in such an odd manner. But if the kid had truly thought his mother would be dead or dying when he returned... then the cowboy couldn't blame him for sticking to her like glue.

Avdol was, like always, the one he had to worry about the least _while_ also being the most helpful kid. He made sure that neither of the young'uns got into any heated arguments and reminded Joseph that he couldn't go around snooping in Jotaro's home just because they knew the kid.

And Joseph... well, it was a good thing Avdol was around to pull him away from whatever newest oddity had called his attention. He had no idea exactly what was running through that boy's mind, but he really needed to learn that sneaking around someone's house was the number one way to get the cop's called on you; thief or not.

Hol Horse did take the opportunity to take a moment to talk with Kira when he was sure that all the kids were entertained or otherwise distracted. He pulled the teen outside of the living area and into a long hallway, quickly informing him of what he would need to do to secure the house before they ran any more risks by staying there without doing a proper sweep.

Kira wasn't happy to be stuck doing such a thing; at least that much was clear from the frown on his lips; but he didn't protest against doing such a thing. He walked away and went about completing the rather simple job he had been assigned- and Hol Horse hoped the teen would do it well, rather than half-ass it because _their lives were at stake_.

Holly prepared a dinner at a lightning speed and before they all knew it, Hol Horse and all of his charges had been directed towards a dinner table that was much too small for all of them. Even after Holly and Jotaro had grabbed extra chairs and pulled them in towards the table, only six people were able to be seated comfortably. Any more would have them elbowing one another.

So all of the children were instructed to sit down at eat. And Kira, being part of the young crowd, was just about forced by Holly to take the last chair at the head of the table before she asked Hol Horse if he could help her transport the food to the table so the kids could serve themselves without too much of a hassle.

Quickly the cowboy moved to help the woman, bringing out a large plate filled with chicken teriyaki to the center of the table as she carried the rice and stir-fried vegetables.

"Your mom's really nice, Jotaro! Thank you for bringing us here!" Kakyoin chirped eagerly as the food was set down before his eyes, only for Polnareff to nod quickly in agreement. "And this food smells delicious!"

He reached out with his hands to grab at the food but Avdol was quick to grab his wrists and pull them back, chiding him and reminding him that there were utensils for such an endeavor.

"Yeah... uh, thank you, Miss Holly, for the food." Joseph piped up even as his eyes remained narrowed on the food.

Jotaro grunted but Hol Horse could tell there was a small tinge of pink dusting his cheeks.

Kira didn't say anything, but from the lack of a frown on his lips, Hol Horse allowed himself to play with the idea that he didn't completely hate being offered a simple yet delicious smelling meal.

Taking a step back, Hol Horse crossed his arms over his chest and just... _watched_ the scene play out before him.

Holly passed out plates and chopsticks to all the children, then began to set about helping the youngest serve their plates. And... wasn't this scene just _disgustingly domestic_?

The last time Hol Horse had been in a dining room with anything _resembling_ a family unit... hell, the last time he had been in a dining room with more than _two_ people that didn't want to throttle his neck... it had been a _long time_.

"Ah, Hol Horse, do you think you could grab the cups from the cupboards? And bring the milk out, too?"

He didn't look the _mother _in her eyes as he turned around and scurried into the kitchen. He didn't want to have to look at the face she would be wearing...

The kind of look she would be wearing was one that still managed to make Hol Horse's heart squeeze with a longing that had always worn heavily on him. It would be the look of a kind smile paired with lively eyes and a slightly stained apron and somewhat frazzled hair... He didn't want to remember that face.

* * *

Holly and he ate their own dinner in the quiet of the living room. This allowed Hol Horse a much needed reprieve of the light hearted atmosphere of the dining room _and_ the children he had been surrounded by for so long. And this offered both adults the perfect quiet moment for Hol Horse to explain the situation to Jotaro's mother without having to worry about the kids overhearing him.

As they ate, Hol Horse explained the whole situation... or, at least, he _tried_ to explain the situation. He wasn't very sure if he was able to use the right words to make Holly understand him well. But he attempted to make stands, a vampire hell-bent to rule the world, and his trip from Egypt all the way to Japan with the now-young men she had once known as teenagers and adults.

Naturally, he omitted his own business relationship with Dio. And he also smoothed over how, exactly, he helped the Joestar group escape Dio's evil clutches. He wasn't about to lie to the woman, yes, but he also wasn't about to admit that he had previously been working with the vampire that had tried to murder her father, son, and their friends.

Soon enough, he had finished the tale by explaining to her that they had been followed from Egypt all the way to Nagoya. He knew that they were currently under the very real threat of being attacked by Dio's minions. But Jotaro had been insistent on coming back home to see her one last time... "He thought you were going to die, ma'am."

The kid- well, teenager, really... even though he was stuck in a body much younger than it was supposed to be, Jotaro had somehow managed to keep a hold of his teenage mind. He had all of his memories... and he knew exactly _who_ Hol Horse was.

The thought terrified Hol Horse. All of this time, Jotaro had gone along with him and his friends because he had wanted to _protect_ them from _him_. He had only revealed his trump card because he believed that his mother was in true peril... well, at least Hol Horse could now understand why the kid had always seemed prepared to tear his head off...

"The doctors in the Speedwagon Foundation explained something very similar to me." Holly spoke up after a few seconds spent in tense silence. "Dio's existence was draining my own; at least that's how I understood it." her hands were gripping the plate in her lap tightly, her face hung in a way that didn't allow Hol Horse to truly gauge the emotions on it. "I believed that my son and father were successful in killing Dio- there was no other way for me to have survived."

Hol Horse pursed his lips at the information, his eyebrows narrowing.

"Well there must have been some other thing." he raised his right hand to scratch at his hair- which was starting to get greasy... he was due for a nice, long bath, huh? "'Cause those five weren't able to kill Dio. I'm sorry to say but the bad guy won that dance." he murmured softly, feeling... _guilty_ about that fact.

He had always known Dio was a monster. But when he had been employed, it had been for a hefty price. And Hol Horse was still a simple man at heart- he went wherever the money led him... or, at least, that's how he used to live. He didn't know if he'd ever be able to continue such a life after he had betrayed his _employer_ to help their _enemies_.

Hell, he didn't know if he even _wanted_ to continue in the life of a mercenary. He was _tired_.

For the following minutes, they were subjected to a heavy silence. Hol Horse didn't know what else to say and Holly didn't seem prepared to say anything else. And there was the fact that he didn't quite know how to break it to the woman that had just gotten her son back that it _might_ be for the best for them to separate yet again... because he _knew_ this would be the first place Dio's followers would look for him.

He didn't know anything about Holly Kujo. None of the intelligence reports given to him by Dio had covered the woman; his father had been mentioned as missing for most of Jotaro's life. Hol Horse had assumed it was because Jotaro's mother was out of the picture and unnecessary to even think about- much like Kakyoin's parents. But now that he was in the same room as her, he couldn't help but believe that this woman wasn't inconsequential.

Holly had somehow survived the curse Dio's existence had brought upon her. And that meant one of two things: Dio was _dead_\- and Lord knew that was _impossible_... or Holly was stronger than even Dio's toxicity.

Well... if this woman was stubborn enough to beat whatever Dio's life had done to her, then it would make sense that her son would be stubborn enough to keep his memories even when the other men de-aged had their minds reverted to that of their physical age.

Sighing softly, Hol Horse stood up with his plate and moved to grab ahold of Holly's own. The woman glancedup at him with wide green eyes, than mumbled out a soft 'thank you' as she let go of her own plate. The man nodded at the words and walked out of the stifling atmosphere of the living room and into the lively kitchen, where he found a sight that made his stomach drop to his feet.

"Kira, why does Kakyoin have soy sauce all over his face?"

The pink haired boy smiled broadly as he raised his arms and pointed over at Polnareff, who... Hol horse sighed heavily as his shoulders drooped. "Why does Polnareff have a _bottle of soy sauce_?"

With a horribly concealed smirk, Kira shrugged his shoulders and none too subtly luxuriated in Hol Horse's clear distress. "He wanted soy sauce."

Lord help him... these kids wanted to act out _now_? In the house of Jotaro's mother?

Placing the plates down in the sink to wash them up later on, Hol Horse turned back to the table... only to find that there were three bodies that were very obviously _missing_. "Kira... where are Jotaro, Avdol, and Joseph?"

The blonde teen placed his right elbow onto the table, then leaned his cheek against it. Taking his time to glance around the table, he took much too long to answer the incredibly simple question.

Hol Horse didn't know why the boy was testing his patience... but his trigger finger was beginning to feel particularly twitchy.

Kira, unlike the rest of the boys, was absolutely disposable. And he seemed to have forgotten that.

"Jotaro and Joseph wanted to scout the house and make sure everything's okay. Avdol went along because he doesn't trust Joseph to not accidentally break anything." Kira eventually informed him, then sighed heavily and closed his eyes. "It's fine, you know. I set up traps outside in case anyone tries to break in and I let the brats know just that. They'll be fine."

As soon as he heard the traps admission, Hol Horse was stunned.

Kira... had done something... without being _asked_?

He blinked in confusion that was very clearly not well hidden because Kakyoin commented on how he needed to trust Kira more, "He's really smart, you know... well... I _think_ he's smart. He sounds like he knows what he's saying."

Kira closed his eyes at that, now leaning back in his chair to cross his arms over his chest. He didn't comment on Kakyoin's positive review of his character. And Hol Horse began to see that there was more to this would-be-criminal than just a bloodthirsty asshole. He was a _cunning_ bloodthirsty asshole...

If he invested enough time and energy into the kid... maybe he would actually become a decent member of society...

* * *

He knew Hol Horse wasn't very happy with them because of how Polnareff had dumped half a bottle of soy sauce all over his hair and face. And he felt bad about that. But he also knew that their father figure was also being a lot more serious than he ever had... and it was starting to scare him.

Jotaro's mother had been nice enough to let them use the bath to get cleaned up and was even kind enough to help scrub his back and hands to make sure he got rid of the honey that neither he or Polnaref had told Hol Horse they had gotten their hands on. If he had been angry about the soy sauce... well, they didn't want to find out how he would get about the honey.

The pajamas he had been given to wear were somewhat to big on him, but Miss Holly had rolled up the sleeves and hem of the pants so that they weren't dragging all around the place while he walked about.

Fresh out of the bath with clean-smelling pajamas that were incredibly soft and comfortable, Kakyoin felt like they were finally in a good place to settle down. Mr. Hol Horse's plans had been to find Jotaro's mother, after all... and if he liked this place enough... well, then... maybe they would be able to stay here for a bit longer than just a day or two?

Kakyoin would like that.

Although...

He managed to find Kira in the living room, watching a television show. Kakyoin didn't know where Hol Horse was. And Miss Holly had said she was going to start gathering up their laundry so she could wash all of their clothes together. So there wasn't any other figure of power for him to go to and ask his questions.

Jotaro, Joseph, and Avdol were still investigating whatever it was that had them so worried. And he had left Polnareff splashing about the bathroom.

When he reached the couch, he tugged at the teenager's pants to get his attention. Instead of looking at him to acknowledge him directly, the blonde merely grunted. Kakyoin frowned at this, but sighed and asked, "Why did you have to set up traps outside?"

Kira's face had remained mostly blank in the beginning. But once Kakyoin finished asking his question, the child was able to see a subtle widening of the teen's eyes- as if he was surprised by the question.

Soon Kira frowned and turned narrowed eyes onto him. "How old are you?"

Kakyoin blinked at the question, wracked his brain for a moment, and shrugged, "Four I think."

Kira's frown deepened. "You're too smart for a four year old."

Once again Kakyoin shrugged, "Can you answer my question?"

Kira glared at him for a few more seconds before he patted the spot beside him on the sofa. Kakyoin blinked at the silent invitation, but soon pulled himself up and sat himself where Kira had pointed towards.

"We're being followed by some bad people. I don't know who and I don't know why, so don't ask me that." Kira hissed that second part out, and Kakyoin felt put out because he was _just about_ to ask that... "It's pretty likely they'll try to break into this house. So I set up some traps to keep them away."

"Traps? Like... with your stand?" he asked, remembering how they had talked about their stands and what they could do a few days ago, back when they had still been in Egypt.

"There's that word again." Kira looked down at him, curiosity buried beneath annoyance in his eyes. "What's a stand?"

Kakyoin lit up at the opportunity to teach someone older than him something they didn't know. So he immediately set about explaining what he knew- which, admittedly, wasn't a lot- about the protective entities most of them had. Kira listened to him with a face that tried to remain impassive, but eventually became one of intrigue when he explained that they all had different abilities and not everyone in the world had a stand- it seemed like Jotaro and Joseph didn't, after all.

"You see, mine is Hierophant Green- isn't he cute?" Kakyoin asked for his stand to come out and meet Kira, which it did with glee. His green protector materialized before Kira, making the teen's eyes widen. Then Hierophant Green waved and Kira sighed softly.

"You're a child."

Kakyoin blinked at the observation. Of course he was. He was too old to be a baby and too young to be anything else, after all.

It seemed like Kira was about to make some other comment, but his eyes narrowed and his whole face became cold. Kakyoin was startled by this, Hierophant Green drifting closer to him.

"Kira?"

"Come on." the teenager grabbed his hand suddenly, pulling him off of the couch and towards the guest room Miss Holly had told them most of them would be sleeping in. "Jotaro! Joseph! Avdol! Come to the guest room immediately!"

When they reached the room, they found Polnareff pulling on his shirt as Miss Holly rolled up the hem of his pajama pants. Both of them were surprised by their sudden entrance, but Kira didn't really give them any explanation for his odd reaction. He merely let go of Kakyoin's hand and told him to stay put and not go anywhere- he was going to find Hol Horse.

He ran off before Kakyoin could ask him why he was acting so odd.

But Kakyoin knew one thing... whatever had happened to make Kira react like that... it must have been important.

~..~..~

Please review and leave me your thoughts!


	12. Chapter 12

He had been enjoying a cigarette in the hallway directly in front of the garden when Kira came running for him.

It had been one of the few moments of blissful silence he had been awarded ever since he had made the grand mistake of saving the Joestars and friends from the fate Dio had deemed adequate for them.

Even though it had lasted a few minutes, it had been pretty nice to have this moment of solitude. It had given him enough peace of mind to be able to think a bit further on the dangers they were currently facing and possible contingency plans to be able to defeat those dangers... well... _run away_ from those dangers was more accurate...

Hol Horse shook his head at the thought. Wasn't he supposed to believe that he was never supposed to enter a fight he didn't know he'd win? Wasn't he supposed to be the kind of person that was supposed to prepare others for the fights he knew he shouldn't embark on? Wasn't he supposed to have made his whole career on building others up and leaving the easy things for himself?

That's what Hol Horse was supposed to stand for... He was supposed to stand for running away, the easy life, having girlfriends, and making the good bucks.

And wasn't that a thing? Now that a woman had been pulled into this insanity... Hol Horse was contemplating standing his ground, rather than running away.

It was always a woman that made his calloused heart soften...

With a small sigh, Hol Horse shrugged to himself.

He couldn't be blamed. Holly Kujo was a one of a kind woman and she deserved to at least keep her home. And odds were that they would be first attacked by a force they would be able to fight off before the villains sent in a big gun, like Vanilla Ice. They would have enough time to pack up and leave with the woman if worst came to worst, he believed.

It wouldn't be too bad to have a woman traveling with them, though. Without a doubt she would be much more adept at handling the children than he was. So she certainly wouldn't be a bad addition to their ragtag group of mostly much too young and defenseless human beings.

Kira shouting at him about one of his traps having been set off forced him away from such silly thoughts and Hol Horse shook his head in an attempt to force his brain to come back to reality.

This was real life. Holly Kujo wasn't like him; she probably would even reject the very idea of leaving with him and the rest. Most probably she would prefer for him to leave Jotaro with her in this house and for the rest of them to run; hopefully they would be able to seek refuge with the Speedwagon Foundation she had told him about when she had explained her curious illness.

Honestly, if she didn't even mention the possibility of having Joseph stick around, Hol Horse wouldn't blame her. It was one thing to have to raise your child once again; it was a whole nother having to raise your _father_.

He only hoped they'd be able to stay safe- wherever they wound up after he left with the rest of the kids...

"Where and how long ago?" instinctually he allowed the cigarette to fall to the ground below him before he crushed it under his boot- and he internally winced when he remembered that was currently indoors and not out in the wilds he was so accustomed to.

He didn't allow himself to regret such an action for too long- he began to follow after Kira in a heartbeat and they swiftly made their way through the innerworkings of the Kujo household to wherever it was that Kira wanted to lead him.

Kira walked away from him as he answered his questions. "The front door- I don't know if they're idiots or powerful. But someone turned the doorknob around two minutes ago." as they passed by the guest door Hol Horse knew was supposed to be his and the kids' to sleep in, he heard the softest murmurs- Kira must have gotten everyone in there to keep them safe... huh... not bad. "None of the other traps have been set off."

After Kira informed him of this, Hol Horse motioned for him to not say anything else. They made their way towards the direction of the front door, keeping far away from any windows that may allow their enemies to know what they were doing.

Within the span of a few minutes- all of which were spent with Hol Horse's heart beating fast and his worry beginning to act up- they reached their destination.

As soon as he glanced over the area, Hol Horse could tell that there was something off. It was rather blatant and in his face, actually, so it would be rather impossible to miss this distinct change.

"Stay back." he instructed as he moved towards the piece of paper that had been slid through the small gap between the ground and the door. He heard Kira shift somewhat behind him- he didn't see the teenager again, though, so he knew that he had been listened to.

On the tips of his feet, he slowly made his way towards the paper on the floor. He glared at it for a couple of seconds, waiting expectantly for it to come to life or start shining or smoking or _something_... but nothing happened. After a safe amount of time had passed without anything changing or him getting knocked out, Hol Horse moved his left foot to prod at the paper. As soon as he nudged it, he moved his foot back- but, much to his surprise, no explosion came from the paper.

"Maybe it's just normal paper?"

Hol Horse grunted but eventually crouched down beneath the paper. After a few more seconds spent glaring at the invader with utmost distrust, he decided to bite the bullet and pick it up.

No gas began to escape and no stand-related shenanigans ensued.

Hol Horse furrowed his brows, absolutely confounded. Why in the world hadn't they been attacked?

There was writing on the paper. It wasn't kanji, though; or any other written language Hol Horse knew little or nothing about. Instead, the writing on the side of the paper that had been left pressed against the floor was English- it was a neat scrawl, had been written in thick black ink, and it was a sizeable chunk of words.

"Well I'll be damned," he muttered in his native English, left hand moving to tip the brim of his hat upwards- only to find empty space.

Hol Horse frowned at this, then remembered that it was bad manners to keep a hat indoors and Holly Kujo deserved for him to at least try and act like a respectable person, even when he wasn't.

"What is it?" Kira piped up from behind him.

Hol Horse leaned his head slightly towards the right in a silent show that he had listened to the teen, then spoke up in Japanese, "Some kind of letter or something."

Kira grunted softly.

Hol Horse focused his attention on reading what had been directed at him.

_Dear Mr. No Proper First Name Hol Horse_... he scoffed. Just from the ridiculous title that had been written as to address him, he believed he knew which Dio follower had written him.

Well, it would make sense. He _had_ killed his brother and all... it wouldn't be much a surprise if D'Arby Sr. wanted some kind of direct revenge on him before he tried to trap the children to return to Dio.

"What's so funny?"

Hol Horse contemplated if he should tell Kira to buzz off- he only needed to worry if Hol Horse told him to worry... _but_ this was the first time the kid seemed to show any actual care for the safety of their group; although this was mostly because their safety equated to _his_ safety... Hol Horse sighed softly at the thought and couldn't believe he wasn't inclined to be an asshole to a budding killer.

"I know the prick." he answered eventually as he straightened back up, the paper still in his hands.

Kira frowned, asked nothing else, and Hol Horse was allowed to focus on what had been left behind for them.

_'Good evening, cowboy. Considering how you ran away from my brother's murder scene and continue to avoid detection, I am guessing you are not aware of the fact that Dio is no longer in the realm of the living- allow me to be the first to congratulate you on your unbelievable amount of stupid luck that allowed you to murder off the most powerful individual in the world without even being aware of what you were doing.'_

Hol Horse's heart stopped as soon as he read the first paragraph.

He blinked.

His fingers began to feel rather cold- a cold sweat broke through him.

He re-read the same part two more times to make sure that he wasn't hallucinating and had, indeed, read what he believed to have been what he had actually read.

Cold fingers tightened their grip against the paper just as he forced his lungs to breathe in- even through the difficult of the tightness he now felt in his chest.

"What's wrong?" he heard from far away... and Hol Horse shook his head in an attempt to clear his mind.

D'Arby Sr. had written him... and let him know he had killed Dio?

_Impossible_.

He was _Hol Horse_. A gun for hire, yes... but he wasn't _good_ enough to kill someone as _immortal as a vampire_.

Through his shock, Hol Horse forced himself to continue reading what had been left for him by the professional gambler.

_'Now that the news is out of the way, I feel like I should inform you that I hold no ill feeling towards your killing of my brother. If anything, I feel like I must thank you for freeing me from the weight of his power. Believe it or not, the person I disliked the most in this world was that pesky brother of mine- you did me a favor by killing him off. So, I feel like I must do a favor for you to repay your ignorant kindness. Dio is dead and many of those contracted by him have gone about living our own lives- the Oingo Boing Brothers and myself being the ones I care enough about to take stock of such information.'_

Even with the shock of what could very well be the most elaborate lie D'Arby Sr. ever created... Hol Horse couldn't help but scoff at the outright narcissism of his fellow American.

_'Some others, though, want your head on a pike. I was generous enough to follow this group to Japan, just to be able to inform you of their plans once you reached the Kujo house. I am leaving as soon as I deliver this paper, though, for I want no further part in the devilry of Dio's cult of fanatics. Vanilla Ice, Nukesaku, and Kenny G. are the three that wish to avenge Dio's death. Mariah and Alessi are not part of this group; I am not sure if they do or do not wish to kill you, though. _

_From what I understand, they wish to strike tomorrow morning, when everyone in the house is asleep. Take a stand or run as you have always done, foolish cowboy- I wish for you to not die an unfortunate and painful death just because you chose to take pity on an dangerous group that will turn against you one Set's power dissipates. I would much rather have your soul as part of my collection, after all._

_If you survive, swing by Florida at some point- we can enjoy ourselves with some nice relaxing gambling. I bet that stand of yours isn't capable of hitting a target every single time._

_~Daniel J. D'Arby'_

As if he would ever play any games with that asshole... he'd rather die tonight than become part of D'Arby Sr.'s collection.

"Hol Horse?" Kira tried again, prompting the cowboy to grunt somewhat.

He was frowning heavily down at the paper.

If D'Arby Sr. wasn't currently attempting to betray him... then Hol Horse would be in for one hell of a confrontation in the morning.

With the likes of Vanilla Ice plotting against them... he knew that he stood no chance.

Beside himself, he bit the inside of his lip as frustration and helplessness began to eat up at him.

If he ran away right now and left the kids behind no... _No_. Even if he was able to escape, Vanilla Ice wouldn't be content with just the death of this group. If he really _had_ somehow killed the vampire and the band of Dio followers knew about this... there would be nowhere he could ever run to where he would be safe. Vanilla Ice would eventually get to him. That guy was _insane_.

Besides... just the thought of abandoning the kids and Holly to face these monsters made his stomach roil with _guilt_.

It was a foreign feeling he absolutely regretted, of course, because it had no _right_ to bother him- he was a lone-wolf first and foremost.

"Hol Horse." Kira tried to call for him with a bit more force, but his voice trembled just a little bit with rising anxiety. Hol Horse's silence must have been getting to the teen.

And _why_ did that make Hol Horse feel _bad_? Kira was a budding murderer! He was trash that needed to be taken out! Hol Horse was just going to use him and take advantage of his existence before... Oh, why was he trying to keep on lying to himself?

The time they may have spent together had been short, yes... but the teen managed to make him feel _bad_ for him. And the idea of training him up to channel his murderous ambitions in the right avenue didn't sound _horrible _to the cowboy. And the idea of having an apprentice take on some of the less savory jobs wasn't half bad either.

Hol Horse really hated himself sometimes.

"How do them traps of yours work?" he asked, a stupid, no-good, absolutely_ reckless_ plan forming in his mind.

When he turned to Kira, he found the teenager's eyes wide and surprised. With one serious look that wasn't quite a glare from the adult, though, the boy was clearing his throat and answering quickly, "Bombs. Uh, I mean, I plant bombs. Until now I've only just mastered transfering a bomb I plant to the first person that touches the surface I put it on- that's how I knew someone had touched the front door's door knob."

Hol Horse's eyes widened at this, "Wait, does that mean the hand of the guy that touched the door's a ticking bomb right now?"

Was he happy about that? Was he bothered by it?

Hol Horse wasn't sure.

D'Arby S- wait a minute. Jr. was dead. That meant D'Arby was now just... _that_.

Odd.

Kira shook his head, seemingly not noticing Hol Horse's wandering mind. "I have to detonate it manually... do you want me to do it? I mean, blow up whatever touched the front door?"

Hol Horse thought about the possible decision... but soon sighed. He was putting a lot of stock in D'Arby's hate for his now dead brother... but he felt that the note was honest.

Hell... he needed a miracle right now. Maybe this was it.

Shaking his head, he said, "Nah. Whoever touched the door actually helped us." he waved the paper a little bit, then asked, "Can you tell what your bomb's transferred onto? Or is it that you just know it's been transferred?"

Kira's eyebrows narrowed a little and the look of _I don't know_ that came onto his face reminded Hol Horse that even though this little asshole had tried to hurt someone... he was just some dumb teenager.

"I can't really explain it... I can plant a bomb on any surface- living or inanimate. And I can tell when someone touches the surface I've trapped- so I can decide to transfer it onto whatever touched it... and I can kind of tell when what's touched the trap is living or inanimate... but I don't know _why_..." after he had said this, Kira frowned. "I don't really know much about this power I have- uh, what you called a stand."

He couldn't believe it... Hol Horse's vendetta against this kid was slipping away slowly... Kira reminded him too much of himself at that age... _too damn much_.

Gritting his teeth, Hol Horse forced his mind to focus on the here and now, rather than the past he had been forced to leave behind.

"That's good." he eventually spoke up, "Not the whole you don't know how your stand works- I'm talking about how you have some idea about how it works." he clarified with a clear of his throat, then asked, "How many bombs can you make?"

Kira's eyes now narrowed, suspicious. "Depends on the blast I would like... Why?"

Hol Horse sucked at his teeth, mouth eager to wrap around a cigarette from all of the stress he had been forced onto in less than an hour... and conceded he would need Kira's help for the insane plan he was contemplating.

"A group of killer's out there and they want the head of everyone in here..." the look of tacit reluctance fueled Hol Horse's spite to inform the teenager of the fact that he couldn't just walk away because he didn't want to die. But instead of threatening him with being the one to enact the violence, he informed the teen, "Considering how you've been seen helping us, they'll want your head too."

Now the teen's eyes burned with spite... before dulling with acceptance.

Huh, Hol Horse blinked in surprise. That hadn't taken too much convincing.

"Of course someone like you would pull me into my death..." the kid lamented the fact and Hol Horse wanted to bop him on the head for being so selfish.

Neither he nor Hol Horse would really be missed if they died. Criminals like them were a dime a dozen. It was the children that needed to live... people that did good things for others for no reason other than just them doing good... they weren't common at all.

Kira and Hol Horse were the kind that deserved to die bloody; it was the fact of their reality. But those kids... _Holly_... they deserved to die old, in a bed surrounded by their loved ones. They didn't deserve to be killed by a group of fanatics that were only really hunting them down because Hol Horse had apparently accidentally killed their idol of sin.

"Small blasts would be enough to destroy someone's fingers?" he chose to ignore the comment and instead remain professional.

Kira frowned, but shrugged, "Yeah. Some fingers would fly off- others would just get burned really badly. I can make around a dozen of those."

Hol Horse nodded. "Good."

He couldn't believe he was actually thinking of taking a stand against a heavy hitter like _Vanilla Ice_ when all he had for backup was a teenager with a mildly destructive stand and children and a _non-stand having_ woman...

But he needed to _try_.

If they ran, it was only going to be a matter of time before they were caught in this very situation yet again- but at that point, they would not have the home advantage _and_ they wouldn't have the knowledge of the ambush.

He'd need to come up with a contingency plan for Kira to get the children and Holly out while he kept their enemies busy... Hell, if he planned this right, he'd be able to kill off Nukesaku and Kenny G. in less than a minute, and then only Vanilla Ice would be left... he'd die to the guy, he knew... Hol Horse swallowed, his heart clenching and his whole body froze up at the thought.

He had always been scared of death.

His legs wanted to trumble at just the thought of having to die when the morning came.

But... he had been running all his life. His legs were more tired of running than they were of standing.

"Alright. I've got a plan." he told the teenager, "Them dozen bombs you can plant, put them in all of the doors inside the house- one on the front door again." he instructed the teenager just as he balled up the paper in his hands.

Kira nodded... then asked, voice smaller than Hol Horse had heard before, "What are you planning?"

Hol Horse ran his tongue over his dry lips, mind aching for another cigarette, then he began to walk away. As he made his way towards the guest room that had been used to hide the innocents, he called out, "Something mighty stupid."

~/~

The kids understood the plan. Holly didn't like the idea of having to leave Hol Horse to fight, but she knew very well that neither her nor any of the kids were going to be of any use in a fight- it had taken her some convincing, but eventually she had agreed to run when Hol Horse gave the word.

He hadn't told any of them that he knew he was going to die come morning. If he did, he knew they'd try and get him to run away. If they tried that, they wouldn't get a wink of sleep and then they'd be too tired to properly run away- he couldn't have that.

Kira didn't like having to be so close to the enemy- but he had eventually agreed to help Hol Horse out in the execution of the weaker enemies before he aided the innocents in their escape.

Hol Horse allowed the fingers on his right hand to flex as he used his left to bring his lit cigarette up to his lips.

Sunrise was beautiful in this part of the world.

~..~..~

What? A self-sacrificing Hol Horse? Who ever would have thought the kids would influence him _this _positively!?

Hope you all enjoyed this chapter!


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